Truly Madly Guilty

by Liane Moriarty

It was the flip tone that did it. The calculated, cruel brightness, as if she thought there was a chance Erika might join her in playing the game they’d played for all those years, where they both pretended to

be an ordinary mother and daughter having an ordinary conversation, when she knew that Erika no longer played, when they’d both agreed the game was over, when her mother had wept and apologized and made promises they both knew she’d never keep, but now she wanted to pretend she’d never even made the promises in the first place.

Do not engage. Remove yourself from the emotional minefield. This was why she was investing thousands of dollars in therapy, for exactly this situation.

All that time she used to waste feeling, and analyzing her feelings, as if they were a matter of national significance. Clementine feels extremely nervous about

No one warned you that having children reduced you right down to some smaller, rudimentary, primitive version of yourself, where your talents and your education and your achievements meant nothing.

ebullient

paroxysm

Elderly women were as tough as nails but it seemed that men got softer as they aged; their emotions caught them off guard, as if some protective barrier had been worn away by time.

‘I choose my marriage.’”

“It’s about making a choice to make your marriage your priority, to, kind of, put that at the top of the page, as your mission statement or something.”

in ever-increasing

You could jump so much higher when you had somewhere safe to fall.