Commonwealth

by Ann Patchett

Two years in law school and not a single person had put a finger on her, but that was law school, where everyone who had made it through the first two weeks understood the concept of liability.

Those were her only two criteria at this point: not to be a lawyer and to keep her clothes on.

“I only wanted to be a reader.”

His belief that a person without an understanding of the law could not actually be intelligent or interesting had been a problem in both of his marriages. Fix’s take on the law was more straightforward: he wanted his girls to be lawyers because lawyers made money. If Caroline and Franny made money themselves there would be a smaller chance that they would one day leave the guy they were married to for a guy who was rich.

She didn’t know where she had lost those three points but she never forgave herself for them.

Their relationship, which had been going on five years, was built on admiration and mutual disbelief.

I wanted exactly what I had.