Chanelle Willard’s Reviews > Another Country > Status Update

I knew Vivaldo was full of shit! But, now, Eric. I love.
“But he crossed the street and started walking towards his apartment. It was the safest place to be, it was the only place to be. Strange people- they seemed strange to him now, but, one day, again, he might be one of them— passed him with that ineffable, sidelong, desperate look; but he kept his eyes on the pavement. Not yet, not you. Not yet. Not yet.”

I knew Vivaldo was full of shit! But, now, Eric. I love.
“But he crossed the street and started walking towards his apartment. It was the safest place to be, it was the only place to be. Strange people- they seemed strange to him now, but, one day, again, he might be one of them— passed him with that ineffable, sidelong, desperate look; but he kept his eyes on the pavement. Not yet, not you. Not yet. Not yet.”

Sometimes I wish Vivaldo would just shut the fuck up

“Don’t mind me, I know you’re the only friend I’ve got left in the world, Vivaldo.”
And that’s why you hate me, Vivaldo thought, feeling still and helpless and sad.

James Baldwin is so poignant sometimes, like this book has shook me to my core, but this line had me cackling:

He walked in without knocking. Rufus was standing near the door, holding a knife.
“Is that for me or for you? Or were you planning to cut yourself a hunk of salami?”

“- here he was. She did not regret it for herself and yet she began to wonder if there were not something in it to be regretted, something she had done to Richard which Richard did not see.”
The writing is so good, that I wish I had my own copy to write and mark up in

“-believed many things, because of Richard, which she was not sure she really believed. He had been absolutely necessary to her- or so she had believed; it came to the same thing- and so she had attached herself to him and her life had taken shape around him. She did not regret this for herself. I want him something in her said, years ago. And she had bound him to her; he had been her salvation; and here-

“She thought of his face as it had been when they met; and watched it now. She thought of all they had discovered together and meant to eachother, and of how many small lies had gone into the making of their one, particular truth: this love, which bound them to one another. She had said no, many times to many things because of Richard-

“They were not cursing something they longed for and feared, they were joking about something they longed for and loved.”

“When you’re older you’ll see, I think, that we all commit our crimes. The thing is not to lie about them- to try to understand what you have done, why you have done it. That way, you can begin to forgive yourself. That’s very important. If you don’t forgive yourself you’ll never be able to forgive anybody else and you’ll go on committing the same crimes forever. “