Pieces of Her

by Karin Slaughter

But the only direction now is up. You can’t fall off the floor.”

economic expansion has historically been underpinned by an undesirable minority or immigrant working class that is kept in check by nativistic corrections. The progress of many on the backs of an other. Irish immigrants erecting New York’s bridges and skyscrapers. Chinese laborers building the transcontinental railroad. Italian workers fueling the textile industry. Here was the so-called nativistic correction: Alien Land Laws. No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. The Emergency Quota Act. The Literacy Act. Dred Scott v. Sandford. The Chinese Exclusion Act. Jim Crow. Plessy v. Ferguson. The Bracero Programs. Poll taxes. Operation Wetback.

“Love doesn’t keep you in a constant state of turmoil. It gives you peace.”

She hated him too much. That was the problem. You didn’t hate someone unless part of you still loved them. From the beginning, the two extremes had always been laced into their DNA.