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Little Bird of Heaven

by Joyce Carol Oates

3.16 · rating details · 771 ratings · 193 reviews

Joyce Carol Oates returns with a dark, romantic, and captivating tale, set in the Great Lakes region of upstate New York—the territory of her remarkably successful New York Times bestseller The Gravedigger's Daughter.

Set in the mythical small city of Sparta, New York, this searing, vividly rendered exploration of the mysterious conjunction of erotic romance and tragic

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Hardcover, 442 pages

Published September 1st 2009 by Ecco Press (first published January 1st 2009)

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Community Reviews

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Jan 23, 2012

notgettingenough added it

Shelves: will-be-regretted-on-my-deathbed

This book has done the unforgivable. It has put me off my porridge.

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May 11, 2011

Sarah rated it

I really don't understand why this book is so highly rated by so many people. Maybe they just read the book jacket. I would have liked to read the book described there. But in reality it's just empty. It repeats things over and over - the trite expressions that Zoe said, the fact that "Krissy loves her Daddy". And oh yeah, Zoe was murdered. Got to mention that again every other page, or the reader might forget. It's just lazy writing. Instead of constructing characters with depth, Oate...more

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May 16, 2010

Lenora added it

This book was difficult for me to really get into. I struggled but kept with it because I enjoyed We Were the Mulvaneys so much, so I hoped my perseverance would be rewarded. I did not enjoy this one as much as The Mulvaneys but it was a good story that I had to finish because of my attachment to Aaron. I enjoyed that the story was told in halves in the voices of the two main characters Krista and Aaron. My heart went out to Aaron and was moved by the cruelty he suffered at the hands of his pare...more

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Oct 05, 2009

Mike Lindgren rated it

Shelves: fiction

With "Little Bird of Heaven," Joyce Carol Oates returns again to depictions of life in Sparta, N.Y., "the doomed city on the Black River." In this latest offering, the fading blue-collar burg has been rocked by the grisly murder of one Zoe Kruller, a troubled but charismatic country singer with a taste for seedy pleasures.

Zoe was found beaten and strangled in her bed in a run-down apartment on the wrong side of town. Estranged from her husband, she had been living...moreWith "Little Bird of Heaven," Joyce Carol Oates returns again to depictions of life in Sparta, N.Y., "the doomed city on the Black River." In this latest offering, the fading blue-collar burg has been rocked by the grisly murder of one Zoe Kruller, a troubled but charismatic country singer with a taste for seedy pleasures.

Zoe was found beaten and strangled in her bed in a run-down apartment on the wrong side of town. Estranged from her husband, she had been living in squalid semi-prostitution, and the feeling among the shabby-genteel townspeople, who are a little too close to Zoe's milieu for empathy or compassion, is that she somehow got what she deserved. The police investigating the crime are certain she died at the hands of her lover or her ex-husband. When the investigation stalls over lack of evidence, however, the murder remains unsolved, effectively casting the families of those involved into an endless purgatory of suspicion.

The fallout from the unhappy woman's demise falls largely on the shoulders of Aaron, her anomic son, and Krista Diehl, the daughter of the local roustabout with whom Zoe was having an affair. Both children believe that the other's father is responsible for the murder, setting up crosscurrents of sin and stain that reverberate throughout the narrative, which jumps back and forth across the passage of two decades in the lives of these death-haunted characters.

This is a powerful novel. Oates's feel for the rhythms of hardscrabble life and its sour mix of alcoholism, suicide, drug abuse, adultery and murder is as keen as ever. In Sparta she has created a fictional universe to stand beside Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County or Cheever's Shady Hill. Her descriptions of the geography of urban decay -- the rusted bridges, tangled back alleys and trash-strewn lots -- are as vivid as any naturalist's portrayal of more felicitous scenes. Her unsentimental language makes a high-lonesome kind of poetry out of otherwise sordid and unremarkable circumstance.
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This is not to say that "Little Bird of Heaven" is without flaws; its pacing is, shall we say, stately, and at times the author lingers over descriptive passages that could have been dispatched more crisply. A book that starts out as a standard police procedural but fizzles into uncertainty and stasis may be realistic, but it will frustrate readers with more conventional expectations.

By now, however, most readers probably have settled ideas about Oates anyway, and "Little Bird of Heaven" is unlikely to change any minds. Despite her long and prestigious career, in certain circles she suffers from the perception that her superheated realism is not sufficiently literary or experimental. There are three reasons for this canard:

The first is the staggering volume of Oates's output. While some of her work can feel either rushed or recycled, it is worth noting that James, Thackeray, Dickens and Trollope, to name a few, produced an equivalent amount of fiction. But critics, especially male ones, are in love with the idea of the author as heroic artiste, a reclusive mystic whose triumphal verbal artifacts are the product of a decade or more of tortured cogitation. This is a purely 20th-century invention. The idea that writing is a craft, that it is work and, like baking or washing dishes or painting houses, can be done daily and well, is anathema to the hoary "great man" theory of literature.

The second reason for the disdain Oates sometimes provokes is that she eschews postmodernism gamesmanship, and it is difficult to think of a writer less burdened with irony -- the kudzu vine of contemporary fiction. Fashion aside, novels like "Little Bird of Heaven," with its mixture of the Gothic and the fatalistic, mark Oates as our closest contemporary analogue to Hawthorne: lyrical, moral, unforgiving.

And finally, there's the poverty, economic and intellectual, of Oates's subjects. Like everyone else, literary critics enjoy reading about characters who resemble themselves, but Oates's narratives are markedly free of eccentric academics, hipster smart-alecks and entry-level publishing ingenues. For Raymond Carver or Cormac McCarthy to write scenes with unshaven characters drinking from the bottle in boardinghouse rooms with stained and faded floral wallpaper registers as noble and bitter and true. To do so as a woman, as a spiritual descendant of Austen and Woolf and Wharton, however, looks to the inflexible-minded as slightly out of focus, as though she were slumming or trying to be something she's not. But Oates's refusal to write soggy family sagas or dating-life confessionals is its own form of toughness. What else would you expect her to do? She's the original Girl From the North Country.

From the Washington Post, September 13, 2009(less)

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Feb 16, 2011

Caroline rated it

JCO must be a weird lady.. The stories I've read of hers are sexy in a forbidden way with undertones of violence and incest, distasteful in their taboo nature yet evocative in the lust they excite (this book,for instance, and We Were the Mulvaneys).

This story is told first by an adolescent girl and then, halfway through, by a physically mature late adolescent male. It's the story of their fathers' non-guilt of the murder of a woman--a sexy woman, who in the eyes of the Puritanica...more

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May 24, 2011

Ann Douglas rated it

Shelves: fiction, novel, read-in-2011, reviewed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 19, 2009

Jean rated it

Although not my favorite Oates (that has to be We Were the Mulvaneys), I did enjoy this latest offering. All the basic information of the plot (the murder of a young woman) is provided in first few pages and the remainder of the book retells the tale in layers. Each subsequent version adds details, different perspectives and information to what is already known. The book is told from the points of view of two children of the men who are the primary suspects in the murder. At first the timeli...more

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Oct 16, 2009

Marcia rated it

Joyce Carol Oates is always a good read in my opinion. This book did not disappoint. It is the story of a murder and the teenage children of the two men suspected of the killing. One of the children is Aaron. His mother Zoe is the victim and his father one of the suspects. The other is Krista. Her father is a suspect since he was having an affair with Zoe. In many books the characters act in ways that do not fit with their personalities. In Little Bird of Heaven, all the characters are s...more

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Sep 06, 2011

Ruby Barnes rated it

· review of another edition

This book was a wonder to me. A wonder that I enjoyed it so much, bearing in mind that the pivotal event is handed, pre-announced, to the reader. The rest of the book circles around this event, delivered mostly in two narratives that move in towards it, away from it and then meeting back up at the end. I gave Testimony by Anita Shreve a low score and that followed a similar format. Why then is Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates a more enjoyable read?

I found the author’s style...moreThis book was a wonder to me. A wonder that I enjoyed it so much, bearing in mind that the pivotal event is handed, pre-announced, to the reader. The rest of the book circles around this event, delivered mostly in two narratives that move in towards it, away from it and then meeting back up at the end. I gave Testimony by Anita Shreve a low score and that followed a similar format. Why then is Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates a more enjoyable read?

I found the author’s style off-putting for the first few pages. This was the first of her books that I’ve read and the constant use of dashes for pauses and italics for emphasis nearly made me put it down. I’m glad that I didn’t. It soon became a book that I looked forward to picking up every chance I had.

Krista Diehl’s first person narrative is very touching. She recalls events over the course of several years, admitting her own naivety and showing how her intuition developed into perception during that time. Her absolute, unwavering faith in and love for her father is something that any man could only hope for. That man is on a clear path to doom and Oates tells the reader on the first page that Eddy Diehl will die in a hail of police bullets. What is gripping is the emotional turmoil the characters endure as the Diehl family is ripped apart by infidelity and false accusation. Sections of narrative are introduced e.g. a section from Eddy Diehl’s perspective during his initial police interrogation, that give valuable insight into his state of mind and the mistakes he makes.

Oates uses concentric story circles of two men, Eddy and Delray, hell-bent on self-destruction through their attraction to the ill-fated Zoe who ultimately betrays them both and leaves a poison legacy of suspicion. Outside of these two men run the stories of Eddie’s daughter, Krista, and Delray’s son, Aaron. Krista is described through her own thoughts and words. Aaron is described more in the physical sense initially. His dominant presence is tangible and Krista’s attraction to him seems terrible but logical.

As Aaron becomes older, his persona turns into Krull and this character comes to life through his actions and reflections. As he, in effect, loses his father, the character becomes more sympathetic and he moves into a similar space as Krista. Both he and she have lost their fathers and Jacky DeLucca’s confession brings them together years later. This reunification is also telegraphed early on by Oates, giving credence to what otherwise might seem an improbable turn of events.

I did have a problem with the Jacky DeLucca character. When Krista meets her for the first time, Jacky’s dialogue is very heavy and I felt like the story was being delivered through her mouth. The same with her confession at the end. She seemed too eloquent and I just wanted her to stop. It was obvious that the killer was one of Zoe’s murkier lovers and Jacky’s lengthy disclosure didn’t sound like a woman dying of liver cancer. That’s my only complaint.

To end on a high point, this has to be the first book I’ve read that ends with a sex scene and well done it is too. The requiting of eighteen years of lust is a fitting climax and it’s bittersweet. I’ll definitely try more from this author.
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Jul 12, 2011

William Prince rated it

· review of another edition

It's really quite remarkable that Joyce Carol Oates is so prolific--and even more so that each of her stories is so strong. This is another solid effort, easily on a par with her other works. I struggled a bit at first with her stream of consciousness, which is normally something that I would avoid altogether, but it is a testament to her skill that I was able to stick with it--not only stay with it, but could barely force myself to put it down. The story is quite compelling. In my reviews, ...more

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Jan 17, 2010

Heather rated it

My first Joyce Carol Oates book and at the recommendation of my mother-in-law who loves her work , as a terrific author, and for being prolific. The tale is set in Sparta, NY over the 80s-2000s but it really doesn't matter what year it is set, save for setting a timeline. I enjoyed the story on its own, as I struggled with the mentalities of the characters and how the formed their consciousness. The division between the two main characters and interaction at the end, provides some interplay that...more

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Jun 11, 2011

Beth Anne rated it

ebook

oates doesn't disappoint in this book...a story of krista deihl, aaron kruller and the death of zoe kruller. both main characters tell their own stories in their own ways...and you end up with a full (though biased) picture of their lives leading up to and after zoe kruller's death.

the way that oates develops characters..their words, thoughts, actions, the ideas that come into their heads. the depth of the story, and the characters is so rich that i couldn't put the ...more

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Dec 16, 2010

Kolleen rated it

Shelves: murder-mystery, suspense, what-a-disappointment

This book was such a disappointment! We Were the Mulvaneys is one of my favorite books and I've avoided reading any of Oates' other books because I knew they couldn't compare. I saw this one in my book club and thought it might be as good as the other. Wrongo!

The book is about two families that are torn apart when they become suspects in the murder of the town prostitute. The book shifts from each suspects family and the implications that came from this murder. Although this sou...more

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Sep 24, 2009

Gail rated it

Oates always writes deep and dark novels often about coming of age. This book follows that same formula. But Oates is such a great writer that I am always drawn into her stories and characters even though I usually don't like books with dark themes.

Zoe Kruller's murder in the NY town of Sparta exposes an affair with a married man. This married man and her husband become the prime suspects, although neither is ever arrested. The novel is about the havoc these accusations have, not ...more

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Jun 19, 2010

Shane Malcolm rated it

Shelves: novels-and-novellas

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May 10, 2010

Kathy Sarlog rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I've read several novels by Joyce Carol Oates, but this isn't one that I find compelling. As with many of her other novels, Oates explores themes like violence, the tenuous relationships between males and females, and identity. The story is told from two points of view, and begins with Krista Diehl recounting "the trouble that came into their lives" in the form of Zoe Kruller (Aaron's mom), who is found brutally murdered in her bed, and the two major suspects are Krista's father (Edd...more

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Jan 01, 2010

Simone rated it

Shelves: 2010-read

when i was in high school i read a lot of joyce carol oates. as one of my professors commented: "that's young for most of her stuff. i've come to think i was probably too young to appreciate a lot of it, and living in syracuse i'm especially interested in her books about upstate new york.

however, this book was not for me. the repetition and stream of conscious writing bored me. the first part is told in first person from the girl's point of view, and the second section told in ...more

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May 10, 2010

Stefan Ehrenkreutz rated it

JCO's books often seem to search for take-off. Sometimes they never quite manage it (cf. Sif, My Sister, My Self). However, after floundering for 50 pages or so this book has a sequence of magnificent highly dramatic scenes which make this one a powerful read. Although I think it ridiculous for almost every novel nowadays to include a murder, this one carries it off. The story and its resolution is more than plausible. The story conveys a very strong sense of setting. Really this book is about h...more

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Oct 26, 2009

Laurel-Rain rated it

In Joyce Carol Oates's latest novel, "Little Bird of Heaven: A Novel," the brutal slaying of Zoe Kruller, a young wife and mother, forms the central core to the story, with two major suspects: her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her long-time lover, Eddy Diehl.

Diehl's daughter Krista and Kruller's son Aaron become obsessed with each other, as, over the years, nobody is charged with the slaying, the murder goes unsolved, and each young person believes the other's fath...moreIn Joyce Carol Oates's latest novel, "Little Bird of Heaven: A Novel," the brutal slaying of Zoe Kruller, a young wife and mother, forms the central core to the story, with two major suspects: her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her long-time lover, Eddy Diehl.

Diehl's daughter Krista and Kruller's son Aaron become obsessed with each other, as, over the years, nobody is charged with the slaying, the murder goes unsolved, and each young person believes the other's father is guilty.

"Told in halves in the very different voices of Krista and Aaron," this tale shines a light on intense sexual love, the anguish of loss, and tenderness that is barely distinguishable from cruelty.

We meet the characters who play key roles in the underworld of drugs and crime, while glimpsing the vulnerabilities of each.

In the end, the secret of who actually killed Zoe Kruller is revealed, but it is almost anticlimactic. By then, so much misery has consumed and ruined the lives of some of the major players, leaving them empty and washed up. After years apart, when Krista and Aaron finally meet again for the big reveal, they are going through the motions. Krista has moved on with her life and developed into someone with opportunities while Aaron has seemingly stood still, stuck in that same place of bitterness and defeat.

What they had imagined about each other could never be. And the people they had become could no longer exist side by side in their old hometown.

When Krista walks away, finally, she is free at last. She has grown wings and can fly away—perhaps like "the little bird of heaven."

In this story, there was so much depth and intensity that I found it difficult to keep reading for any length of time. I had to take breaks. And as I neared the end, I found myself speeding up, rushing the ending along, so I could escape the darkness of the characters and their sordid lives.

This is a book well worth reading, but not one that I would reread. Perhaps 4.5 stars.

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Dec 25, 2011

Judyarzt rated it

Not as good as most of Joyce Carol Oates's other books. Set in upstate NY with a host of shady characters, two of whom are implicated in the murder of a sordid, but sad drug-addicted woman's murder. The novel focuses more so on the daughter and son of the two men who are suspected by the police of committing the murder. Although the book is not as good as I would have liked, I read it in two days; Oates has a way of drawing the reader into the characters' lives as well as the plot and details of...more

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Jan 22, 2010

Rene rated it

This is only the second book I've read by Oates and I already see a pattern in her writing. It is choppy, cold, depressing, brash and bold. We were the Mulvaney's was a disturbing story about a young girl who was raped and the affects the event took on the girl and her family who chose to ignore it. Little Bird of Heaven was about a brutal murder of a young woman in a small town of upstate NY. The murder sparks rivalry between the family of the woman and her lover's family who both had no cl...more

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Dec 02, 2009

Becky rated it

So I picked this book up from the library since it was a new book - I'd read one other book by Joyce Carol Oates and liked it, so I figured this would run in about the same vein.

I got through about 3 chapters before I was so bored and uninterested that I knew reading the whole thing would be a waste of my time. The first three chapters seem a blend of stream-of-consciousness thinking and memories of the main character, that rather than working together to create a mental picture of t...more

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Jan 02, 2012

Gabby rated it

There was something about this book that was flat for me. I was annoyed by Krista's naïveté and I felt like she never developed like I wanted her to when she got older. She was still the same little girl the whole time. Maybe it was because she was saying daddy all the time and kept repeating the same thing. Aaron was my favorite part of the book. He was real for me. But the ending was flat. It left me scratching my head. I loved Joyce's book them because it was so layered and intricate but this...more

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Oct 22, 2009

Kasa Cotugno rated it

I have been reading Joyce Carol Oates since the 70's and have been amazed at her prodigious output, her ability to tackle different literary styles, and the quality of her work. She has written under pseudonyms, burst forth volumes of short stories, and still manages to hold a teaching position at Princeton. Where she shines above other novelists is her ability to probe the innermost heart of a character, whether Marilyn Monroe (in her audacious "Blonde"), or Mary Jo Kopechne (in her e...more

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Jun 01, 2011

Judith rated it

Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates brings it all together – mystery, romance, vivid rust belt realism, family struggles, and petty small town spite. In the fictional city of Sparta, New York, we meet 11-year-old Krista, whose Daddy cannot live with her family anymore because he is a “person of interest” in a homicide – the brutal murder of beautiful Zoe Kruller – and because, as he finally had to acknowledge, he and Zoe were lovers. In time, we come to understand Krista's fascination wit...more

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Apr 19, 2010

Joan Colby rated it

When one is as prolific a writer as Oates, there are sure to be hits and misses. Little Bird of Heaven, unfortunately, is one of the latter. A disappointment, as when Oates centers her tales in upstate New York, she usually evokes both setting and character effectively. This novel fails particularly in creating sympathetic and convincing characters. Oates device of repetition which normally works well, is intrusive here. The magic she oft-times operates in immersing the reader in the story, is ...more

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Oct 26, 2009

Jennifer rated it

Shelves: put-aside, literature

This is hard for me to admit, because I am a huge JCO fan (I think the world of her), but I just couldn't get into Little Bird of Heaven. Loved the setting. Loved much of the description and use of language. Loved the set-up--a murder, an affair, her father accused of killing his mistress, the familial upheaval that ensues--but it didn't grab me. Everything just felt so slow and drawn out. I wanted less intricate detail and more juice.

(I wonder if it's just me and my short atten...more

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Dec 25, 2011

Amy rated it

I am typically a huge fan of Joyce Carol Oates, but this book was not for me. While the premise of the story is intriguing, I found myself having to force myself to keep reading. I am not sure if it is how the characters were developed or the level of writing contained in this novel, but I had really high hopes going into it and they were quickly dashed forty or fifty pages in. I continued on, hoping that it would pick up again and the story would reel me, but it didn't. In fact. I really couldn...more

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Feb 04, 2010

Bobbi rated it

Shelves: book-club

Wow.

Storyline: Small town upstate New York man had affair with trashy woman who was subsequently murdered. This man was accused of her murder but never charged. Daughter of man rehashes in her head the details of her life and family over and over and over.

I found the style of this book so hard to read. It was like the movie "Groundhog Day" where you feel like you are hearing the same thing over and over 50 different ways. There was a lot of italicized sentence...more

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Nov 02, 2011

Diane rated it

Set (mostly) in the 1980s, this book tells the story of a young girl whose father is accused of killing his mistress. Although he insists on his innocence, no one believes him except for his young daughter. Meanwhile, the daughter becomes obsessed with the son of the murdered woman, and he with her. Although the story is a little strange, I thought the author did a good job of drawing the characters and evoking the setting. She seemed to get inside the characters' anxieties and frustrations ...more

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About Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is also the recipient of the 2005 Prix Femina for The Falls. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. Pseudonyms ... Rosamond Smith and Laure ...more

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Quotes from Little Bird of Heaven

“How mysterious it is, to be in love. For you can be in love with one who knows nothing of you. Perhpas our greatest happinesses spring from such longings-being in love with one who is oblivious of you.” — 18 people liked it

“Why you can't trust women. Even young girls. Can't know what the fuck they are thinking, can't know what they are feeling, can't know how they will surprise you except to know it won't be a surprise you will like.” — 17 people liked it

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