April 30, 2025
- How The Great Gatsby became an American classroom staple
- The problematic business of the energy fueling AI
- Sadie Stein remembers Jane Gardam
- Close
to the Lithub Daily
Thank you for subscribing! Support Lit Hub.
“As soon as I locked myself inside, I smoked everything I could reach. But the pain is still here. And I’m still here. Once again, my hair is practically torn out of my scalp. But this time, he used it to bang my head against the wall. I don’t know where I hurt anymore. I don’t know where I’ve been hit or what I’ve been hit against. Everywhere.”
“It occurred to me that I’d become too comfortable with breaking and entering. Back from field training, I’d leapt onto the windowsill in a single bound, no awkward scrambling, as though onto a pommel horse, despite my combat boots and my Kevlar. I crouched, resting my hands lightly on the frame. My ponytail bobbed and then went still. In perfect balance, I could have carried a stack of books on my head, a debutante but for the stench of dirt and sweat.”
"When I tell my grandfather / I am writing about Jane, he says, / What will it be, a figment / of your imagination?"
“Christmas Day I found no package by the tree shaped anything like a guitar or even like a box for a guitar. And when my two brothers and I tore the wrappings off our identically shaped presents, we found we had each received identical gifts—cameras, Minolta XD5 35mm cameras, brand spanking new Minolta XD5 35mm cameras.”