The Heart's Invisible Furies

by John Boyne

“Every man is afraid of women as far as I can see,” said Julian, displaying an understanding of the universe far beyond his years.

“What you know about women,” replied Maude, “could be written in large font on the back of a postage stamp and there’d still be room for the Lord’s Prayer.

But here’s the thing, and I think everyone secretly believes this if they’d just let themselves admit it: the world would be a much healthier place if we allowed each other to do exactly what we wanted, when we wanted, with who we wanted, and didn’t lay down puritanical rules for how to conduct our sex lives. We could live with the person we love the most, for companionship and affection, but we could go out and have sex with willing partners and perhaps even talk about it when we got home.”

“There are three types of lies,” said Alex, looking at me. “Lies, damn lies, and statistics.”

You won’t understand this but it’s something that every girl realizes at some point in her life, usually when she’s around fifteen or sixteen. Maybe it’s even younger now. That she has more power than every man in the room combined, because men are weak and governed by their desires and their desperate need for women but women are strong. I’ve always believed that if women could only collectively harness the power that they have then they’d rule the world.

Maybe there were no villains in my mother’s story at all. Just men and women, trying to do their best by each other. And failing.