La comemadre Quotes

“His mother walks in and greets us. She’s traded her green gloves for a T-shirt that says Denmark. Lucio tells her she’s picked the wrong country. His mother explains that she’s trying out a system invented by Dag that involves announcing one’s mood with T-shirts. Denmark is, logically, bad news.”
― Roque Larraquy, Comemadre

“Do you see this shoelace? I’d like to take it and tie your tongue to your uvula, and your uvula to your stomach, and your stomach to your uterus, so that the very first word of your answer leaves you hollow.”
― Roque Larraquy, Comemadre

“Papini interrupts to say that his mother’s coffin contains only a leg. We waste a moment imagining what it must be like to bring flowers to a leg. No one asks what happened to the rest of his mother.”
― Roque Larraquy, Comemadre

“At night we come up with daring plans that would change us completely, were they to become a reality. But these plans dissolve in the morning light, and we go back to being the same mediocrities as before, doggedly ruining our own lives.”
― Roque Larraquy, La comemadre

“I observe the teenage social scene from a seat in the very last row.”
― Roque Larraquy, Comemadre

“The child prodigy is a repulsive creature. It can be measured according to the degree of its anomaly, the fence around its isolation: its so-called talent.”
― Roque Larraquy, Comemadre

“Most of the donors have a hundred-word vocabulary, including articles and prepositions. Under these conditions, it would be hard not to lapse into poetry. At least, Ledesma says, we won’t run into too much irony, which complicates interpretation. Gigena purses his lips and, after a little “hmm” that softens his disagreement, says that irony is not the exclusive purview of the educated, and that it can be seen outside small-town corner stores in the form of insulting nicknames. Oinking, for example, at a slim young woman.”
― Roque Larraquy, Comemadre

“shoot Mr. Allomby a conspiratorial glance. We’re not actually conspiring, but it’s important to look at people like that every now and then because that’s how real relationships are forged.”
― Roque Larraquy, Comemadre

“It’s the so-called qualitative leap, Quintana. At night we come up with daring plans that would change us completely, were they to become a reality. But these plans dissolve in the morning light, and we go back to being the same mediocrities as before, doggedly ruining our own lives. This doesn’t happen to you? With”
― Roque Larraquy, Comemadre

“Is the severed head still Juan or Luis Pérez, to pull a name out of a hat, or does it become the head of Juan or Luis Pérez?"

The question, which concerns me directly (I keep the written record of the experience), reminds me that Papini's mother's leg has its own tombstone.”
― Roque Larraquy, La comemadre

“I smile at him like someone who smiles all the time.”
― Roque Larraquy, La comemadre

“During the rescue, I want so badly to tell everyone that I could burst. But the story of how Sisman fell in love with Sylvia, maintained a secret relationship with her, promised to get her discharged, and then participated in her decapitation is just too juicy for a summary. I decide to save it for afternoon tea.”
― Roque Larraquy, La comemadre

“If the experiment is a success and Sylvia's head does indeed speak, I know it will say something about flies. I look forward to the widespread confusion, the frenzy of interpretations.”
― Roque Larraquy, La comemadre

“Ledesma explains that the rest of our instructions will be ready by Sunday, but that we should start clearing our consciences as soon as possible. He suggests confession or mass for the religious among us and aerobic exercise for the rest.”
― Roque Larraquy, La comemadre

“Mr. Allomby, who sits inside pretending to be a person, says he can breathe without difficulty.”
― Roque Larraquy, La comemadre

“Next up is Papini, who doesn't demand an apology because he is citric and happy: we aren't here to discuss his trespasses. His skeletons skitter back into the closet.”
― Roque Larraquy, La comemadre

“Papini's speech accelerates as he walks toward the morgue, leaving a trail of lemon in his wake.

'It's the so-called qualitative leap, Quintana. At night we come up with daring plans that would change us completely, were they to become a reality. But these plans dissolve in the morning light, and we go back to being the same mediocrities as before, doggedly ruining our own lives. This doesn't happen to you? With these men, it's different. Why do you think they're still around, if they're so inferior to us? It's a question of adaptation. They act. They carry out the plans they make at night. What's more, they're depraved. They wear too much pomade, smell like tobacco, sweat bile, and masturbate frequently. They have no morals. They do, however, have an ethics that neither you nor I could comprehend, which involves eradicating us. Do you understand?'

'How do you know they wear too much pomade?'

'You're taking me very literally, Quintana.”
― Roque Larraquy, La comemadre

“The hypothesis is that we are because we’re not everything we could be. In other words, Director Ledesma, the foundation of being is the absence of this variation, which is essentially to say that we exist in and by error.”
― Roque Larraquy, Comemadre