David Bergen is a master of taut, spare prose that's both erotic and hypnotic. . . .

I love road trips. You get into this Zen rhythm; throw sense of time out the window.

It was the first time that we had sort of articulated our major problem. She wanted to die and I wanted her to live and we were enemies who loved each other.

After that we tried thirty-nine times to stand together on the tube until we finally did. It was fun. I liked the falling part, and holding hangs. Relationships were so easy when all you had to work on was standing up together.

Even a Menno sheltered from the world knows not to stick her tongue into the mouth of a boy who owns an Air Supply record. You might stick your tongue into the mouth of a boy who owned some Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but you would not date him on a regular basis, or openly.

Perhaps depression is caused by asking oneself too many unanswerable questions.

Life being what it is, one dreams not of revenge. One just dreams.