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Elizabeth McCracken

Elizabeth McCracken Biography

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“She had forgotten how many minutes of motherhood were devoted to this question, even before Edith's accident. Alive now? And now? The deeper Edith's sleep the shallower her life, it seemed. The extraordinary stillness of a sleeping baby! Look for a breath at the stomach, flush at the cheeks. Then Luetta would leave the room, come back. She lost hours to the question. Alive now, now, now?”

ChildrenMotherWorryAliveBabyExtraordinary Stillness
Book:Bowlaway
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“I’m so sorry,” he said, because after Pamela died, he promised himself that if anyone told him the smallest, saddest story, he would answer, I’m so sorry. Meaning, Yes, that happened. You couldn't believe the people who believed that not mentioning sadness was a kind of magic that could stave off the very sadness you didn't mention – as though grief were the opposite of Rumpelstiltskin and materialized only at the sound of its own name.”

LossGriefSadnessEmpathy
Book:Thunderstruck & Other Stories
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“In the mornings he would walk…. At the start of a walk, alone or moving, the sun at his back or cold rain down his collar, he was more himself than under any other circumstance, until he had walked so far he was not himself, not a self, but joined to the world. Invisibly joined. Had a religion been founded on this, purely this, he would have converted….. Proof of God? Proof was in the world, and the way you visited the world was on foot…. Your walking was a devotion.”

SpiritualityUniverseWalkingDevotionConnection
Book:Bowlaway
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“Books are a bad family - there are those you love, and those you are indifferent to; idiots and mad cousins who you would banish except others enjoy their company; wrongheaded but fascinating eccentrics and dreamy geniuses; orphaned grandchildren; and endless brothers-in-law simply taking up space who you wish you could send straight to hell. Except you can't, for the most part. You must house them and make them comfortable and worry about them when they go on trips and there is never enough room.”

Books
Book:The Giant's House
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“truthfully, this is the fabric of all my fantasies: love shown not by a kiss or a wild look or a careful hand but by a willingness for research. i don’t dream of someone who understands me immediately, who seems to have known me my entire life, who says, i know me too. i want someone keen to learn my own strange organization, amazed at what’s revealed; someone who asks, and then what, and then what?”

KnowsWantLooksDreamHandsSeemsAsksMy OwnKnownFantasyStrangeKissingResearchOrganizationCarefulWillingnessFabricKnow MeAmazedUnderstand MeFantasy Love
Author:Elizabeth McCracken
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“I had never wanted to be one of those girls in love with boys who would not have me. Unrequited love - plain desperate aboveboard boy-chasing - turned you into a salesperson, and what you were selling was something he didn't want, couldn't use, would never miss. Unrequited love was deciding to be useless, and I could never abide uselessness. Neither could James. He understood. In such situations, you do one of two things - you either walk away and deny yourself, or you do sneaky things to get what you need. You attend weddings, you go for walks. You say, yes. Yes, you're my best friend, too.”

WantNeedsTwoUseWantedGirlWalksSituationBoysMissingUnderstoodDenySellingUselessTwo ThingsDesperateUnrequited LoveChasingMy Best FriendNeed YouUnrequitedUselessnessSneakySalesperson
Author:Elizabeth McCracken
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“As for me, I believe that if there's a God - and I am as neutral on the subject as is possible - then the most basic proof of His existence is black humor. What else explains it, that odd, reliable comfort that billows up at the worst moments, like a beautiful sunset woven out of the smoke over a bombed city.”

IfsBelieveMomentsBeautifulI BelieveBlackCitiesExistenceWorstSubjectsComfortProofSmokeOddSunsetWovenBlack HumorWorst MomentsBeautiful Sunset
Author:Elizabeth McCracken
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“People think librarians are unromantic, unimaginative. This is not true. We are people whose dreams run in particular ways. Ask a mountain climber what he feels when he sees a mountain; a lion tamer what goes through his mind when he meets a new lion; a doctor confronted with a beautiful malfunctioning body. The idea of a library full of books, the books full of knowledge, fills me with fear and love and courage and endless wonder.”

PeopleThinkingWayFeelsMindBookIdeasDreamBodyRunningBeautifulAsksWonderParticularMountainDoctorsAnd LoveLibraryEndlessLionsLibrarianClimbersLove And FearLove And CourageMountain Climbers
Author:Elizabeth McCracken
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“Despite popular theories, I believe people fall in love based not on good looks or fate but on knowledge. Either they are amazed by something a beloved knows that they themselves do not know; or they discover a common rare knowledge; or they can supply knowledge to someone who's lacking. Hasn't everyone found a strange ignorance in someone beguiling? . . .Nowadays, trendy librarians, wanting to be important, say, Knowledge is power. I know better. Knowledge is love.”

PeopleKnowsBelieveLooksImportantFallFoundI BelieveCommonFateIgnoranceStrangeTheoryFalling In LoveDespiteBelovedLackingAmazedLooking GoodLibrarianKnowledge Is PowerTrendy
Author:Elizabeth McCracken
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“For some people, history is simply what your wife looks good standing in front of. It’s what’s cast in bronze, or framed in sepia tones, or acted out with wax dummies and period furniture. It takes place in glass bubbles filled with water and chunks of plastic snow; it’s stamped on souvenir pencils and summarized in reprint newspapers. History nowadays is recorded in memorabilia. If you can’t purchase a shopping bag that alludes to something, people won’t believe it ever happened.”

PeopleIfsBelieveLooksWaterWifeHappenedFrontsPeriodsStandingFilledCastsGlassesNewspapersSnowToneBagsShoppingBubblesPlasticPencilsFurnitureChunksFramedBronzeSouvenirsDummyMemorabilia
Author:Elizabeth McCracken
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“All I can say is, it's a sort of kinship, as though there is a family tree of grief. On this branch, the lost children, on this the suicided parents, here the beloved mentally ill siblings. When something terrible happens, you discover all of the sudden that you have a new set of relatives, people with whom you can speak in the shorthand of cousins.”

PeopleChildrenI CanHappensLostSpeakParentGriefTreeTerribleIllBelovedBranchesCousinSiblingKinshipMentally IllShorthandLost Child
Author:Elizabeth McCracken
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“A Lucky Child is an extraordinary story, simply and beautifully told. Heartbreaking and thrilling, it examines what it means to be human, in every good and awful sense. Perhaps most amazingly of all, Thomas Buergenthal remembers and renders the small mysteries and grand passions of childhood, even a childhood lived under the most horrific circumstances.”

HumansMeanChildrenStoriesRememberPassionMysteryChildhoodCircumstancesLuckyExtraordinaryVery GoodAwfulThrillingHeartbreakingMost AmazingHorrificWhat It Means To Be Human
Author:Elizabeth McCracken
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