More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
mutual acquaintances whose faces Peter could not call to mind.
Haha - telling him he’s a prick
What floats their boat is Jesus and forgiveness.
And healing
It would take a novelist’s skill to capture those nuances in words
Author - narrator
All of their depictions have his arms spread
It was like the angel in Zechariah 3:2–4 taking off the priest’s filthy clothes. Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
Bible
Did he send it?
Bible Gal. 6:5
It’s been a shock to me how bad I am at describing things in letters. It’s a shortcoming we never had to face before, being together every day of our lives.
It’s made me read the Epistles in a different light. Paul, James, Peter and John didn’t say much about their context, did they? Scholars have to dig between the lines to get even the faintest clue about where the apostles might have lived at the time. If only Paul could have spent a few words on describing his prison …
It’s not the most crystal-clear passage he ever wrote (and this one was hand-written, too, not dictated like some of the other epistles!)
Bible, see v. 11
berk,
jerk?
I’ve decided to let it go until I’m back with you again.
Similes
But that exactly the sort of simile the metaphysicals went in for.
Everyone is busy here. Not in a frantic way, just getting on with what they do. They’re not as low-key as the Oasans, but there’s definitely less stress than you’d expect.
there’s no police force here.
the booze-free environment.
taking drugs,
gambling,
they read books about their area of expertise, they flip through old magazines,
how strange it was that none of the other USIC personnel exhibited those mannerisms, despite the high likelihood that some of them had been heavy smokers in their earlier lives.
Annoyance, Peter realized, was her defense mechanism,
he and Bea had often noted that the sort of people who were most deeply enthralled by the science of the supernatural were also least able to spot the glaringly obvious reasons why their own lives were in chaos.
Haha
He only wished he’d had the chance to explain more fully how prayer worked.
A miracle similar, in principle, to the one that had given human form to Jesus.
Simile?
There are times of our lives when we feel indestructible even though quite a lot of things are going wrong, and other times when everything is going well yet we feel anxious and fragile from the moment we wake up.
he let go the idea that he must dutifully address each and every point she raised. She didn’t need that. What she needed was two simple things: an acknowledgment that he’d read her letter, and some sort of message from him in return.
I still haven’t got to the bottom of their sexes, yet—they don’t understand my questions on that score and I don’t understand their answers!
Haha
I wouldn’t say that the ones that are mothers behave more maternally than the ones who aren’t. They’re ALL quite nurturing and connected.
he worried that she might think he was trying to earn Brownie points. Worried, too, that it might be true.
Haha
it seemed callous to cease praying for him just because they’d lost touch.
Haha
“I pray for the people of the Maldives and North Korea and … uh … Guatemala. They’re not real to me as individuals, and I’m so ashamed of that. But they’re real to You.
Hayes,
grown to enjoy how boring she was. Her boringness was so perfect that it had transcended itself to become a kind of eccentricity, and her own unawareness of it was funny and sort of touching.
Haha
The troop of humans
Stanko,
in fact, had he seen a gun at all since coming to Oasis? Could this really be a community without weapons? Could there be such a thing?
Who had authorized this communal foray, armed with nothing but curiosity?
Simile
Simile
Their gait was solemn and hilarious.
Simile
Simile
Simile
an impression of utter stupidity.
Haha
And so they stood there bantering, happy as children, while the exotic procession shuffled past.
his undischarged sense of inadequacy.
Only when he returned to the USIC base did his sexuality revive. Likewise, it was only when he was in the USIC base that he felt the full weight of loneliness.
Will there be an explanation for that, or is that something we’re supposed to answer for ourselves?
