The Sequel (The Book Series, #2)

by Jean Hanff Korelitz

In general, the level of literary approbation tends to decline with the presence of an actual plot.

We used to celebrate an author’s imagination when they wrote about characters very unlike themselves. Now we get upset because they’re somehow not supposed to. It does not bode well for fiction.”

It was a feeling of being not sorry for herself, exactly, but highly irritated by her apparent lot: that of a small, uncomfortable, left-alone, and put-upon girl who was not remotely as important as her brother, and never would be.

He did things as a means to an end, for the sole benefit of himself, and while those attributes made for a less-than-endearing human being, they also made for a motivational construct she personally understood—and even endorsed. Why undertake actions on behalf of other people when there were so many actions one might undertake for oneself? It was simply logical, and a great saver of effort.