A great read. Sad at times but an overall feel-good book. Love the way it’s written–poetic at times but feels very real. Read if you are looking for a story about family + loss + being true to yourself. Realizing I like books that follow the characters through different stages of life.
Some passages I like:
“We’re not separated from the world by our own edges…We’re part of the sky, and the rocks in your mother’s garden, and that old man who sleeps by the train station. We’re all inter-connected, and when you see that, you see how beautiful life is. Your mother and sister don’t have that awareness. Not yet, anyway. They believe they’re contained in their bodies, in the biographical facts of their lives.”
…And the father and daughter had walked home, their arms touching, molecules dancing between them, and the stars turning on like tiny lightbulbs in the evening sky.
Her family was a mirror in which she recognized her reflection.
Just because you never thought about someone didn’t mean they weren’t inside you.
“…You can’t fail when you’re doing what you love”
There was no space between the sisters in this pictures; they were pressed together as if they were as comfortable with one another’s bodies as they were with their own
When sylvie spoke their family history into the air, all she heard was love.
She was growing into herself, and she was old enough to be confident that if the time came to save herself, she would have the strength to do so.
Charlie has told his daughter what he perhaps needed to believe: that everything was beautiful, which meant his life–even though it disappointed Rose, even though it was almost over–had beauty.
“You and your sisters have so many reference points, such as dense history.”
The passage of time, and the details that spun some moments into unforgettable memories and others into thin air, traveled with Sylvie–the swirling atmosphere of her own life–while she walked.
…But almost thirty years after his death, his daughters’ love for him ran so deep that he could be considered the most successful person William had ever known.
“Everything is so rich inside me now…that it holds my attention. You know the Mark Twain quote about how the only reason for time is so everyting doesn’t happen at once? I feel like everything that’s ever happened in my life is happening inside me.”
…Julia somehow contained Sylvie–like vines of roses, the two eldest Padavano girls had woven around and into each other when they were young.