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antonia said:
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Have really just started this but it's blowing me away. I bought the book based on hearing Ondaatje read this passage on NPR:
Now and then our father embraced us as any father would. This happened only if you were able to catch him in that no-man's lHave really just started this but it's blowing me away. I bought the book based on hearing Ondaatje read this passage on NPR:
Now and then our father embraced us as any father would. This happened only if you were able to catch him in that no-man's land between tiredness and sleep, when he seemed wayward to himself. I joined him on the old covered sofa, and I would lie like a slim dog in his arms, imitating his state of weariness--too much sun perhaps, or too hard a day's work. Claire would also be there sometimes, if she didn't want to be left out, or if there was a storm. But I simply wished to have my face against his checkered shirt and pretend to be asleep. As if inhaling the flesh of an adult was a sin and also a glory, a right in any case. To do such a thing during daylight would have been unthinkable, he'd have pushed us aside. He was not a modern parent, he had been raised with a few male rules, and he no longer had a wife to qualify or compromise his beliefs. So you had to catch him that twlight state, when he had ceded control on the tartan sofa, his girls enclosed, on in each of his arms. I would watch the flicker under his eyelid, the tremble within that covering skin that signalled his tredness, as if he were being tugged in mid-river by a rope to some other place. And then I too would sleep, descending into the layer that was closest to him. A father who allows you that should protect you allof your days, I think....more
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