Commonwealth

by Ann Patchett

Half the things in this life I wish I could remember and the other half I wish I could forget.”

Isn’t that what everyone wants, just for a moment to be unencumbered?

“Keeping people safe is a story we tell ourselves.”

“For the vast majority of the people on this planet,” Fix had said, “the thing that’s going to kill them is already on the inside.”

Franny, half asleep on top of the bedspread beside her husband, was unable to map out all the ways the future would unravel without the moorings of the past.