Everybody's Son Quotes

“He had been in the legal profession long enough to know that human behavior was complicated and unpredictable and that justice always had to be tempered with mercy.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son: A Novel

“pull of blood, the tug of—say it, say it—of blackness was too compelling.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“Home,” he said. “I’m going home. I’m off to see my mam.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“knew, would register as ignorant on the ears of his people back home?”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“he still felt something was missing, and it was only hours later that he knew what it was: the dream of unification with his mam that had lulled him to sleep for over two years. Once again he had felt his chest begin to heave, but this time he had stopped himself, pulled his own body back from drowning. Drowning.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“He had been a good son to her, faithful, loyal, he had not allowed himself to be seduced by the abundant food and the soft mattress, the piles of gifts they’d bought him for Christmas, even the pride he felt at his growing popularity in school. But it all amounted to nothing, ashes at his feet.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“His public record on women’s rights was impeccable. His personal record, not so much.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“That’s it? You’ll just put it behind you? You can do”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“He was everybody’s son, but he belonged to no one. The three parents in his life had each betrayed him in his or her own way, and he had no idea how to weigh one betrayal against”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“She lifted her left eyebrow. “That’s how they teach you to talk to your elders up north?” she said.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“Down here, you know exactly where you stand. White man is king here, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But up north, they talk sweet to your face. And then cut your throat when you ain’t looking.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“Her lip curled. “That’s what you think of me? All this time. That your mama is the kind of woman who would give up her only child? To white folk? What’s the matter with you, boy?”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“Anton looked closely at the picture, trying to detect something in that boy’s eyes—fear, wariness, distrust—but found only brightness. This was not the look of an abused or neglected boy.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“touched his cheek with her thin brown hand and said, “That you, Baby Boy?,” he had no choice but to become nine years old again and respond, “Yes, Mam. It’s me. It’s Anton.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“But the face that appeared at the door was so guileless and alert, the eyes so clear and kind, her recognition of him so immediate, the smile that flooded her face so wondrous, that he felt an immediate reciprocal warmth.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“But then he located the locus of his anger, and the rest of it fell away. He reread the sentence: “You done the right thing by choosing that white family over me, Anton.” You did the right thing? He chose the white family? He was a child, for Pete’s sake, with no agency.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“I can’t decide if you’re the blackest white man I’ve ever met or the whitest black man.” He sucked in his breath, the words crashing into him. He felt as if she had unmasked him, laid bare the central conundrum of his life. For the rest of his life, her words would haunt him. He knew this with an immediate and fierce surety.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“can’t decide if you’re the blackest white man I’ve ever met or the whitest black man.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“He’s not a strange man,” Anton yelled. “I told you, he’s my dad.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“Without warning, his face crumbled. “David. How come Mam loves the drugs more than me?”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“Anton looked up at him, a faint smile on his face. “I know,” he said. “Thanks.” Then he squinted. “But who will take care of Mam?”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“Mam told you this?” The boy’s voice was raw. “That she don’t want to take care of me no more?”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“Wait, what? You did it to make me happy?” David felt his face flushing, felt a muscle work in his jaw. “You have some gall, Dee. I did this for you. For us. Because I thought—foolishly, as it turns out—that having a child in the house would—” He cut himself off, frightened by the look on Delores’s face. “Would do what, David?” Dee’s voice was low. “Bring James back? Help me forget my only son? Erase the memory of my James in that coffin? What did you think would happen just because you brought a stranger into my house? And now you want me to do what? Kiss your ring in gratitude?”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“The next time Uncle Connor pontificated about reforms to the criminal justice system, Anton would have to forget how he had railroaded an imprisoned woman with a court-appointed lawyer.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“And those terrible sounds kept pouring out of her, released to the air like a poisonous vapor, and he thought absently, How could this frail, small body have carried the weight of this? As if her pain were a living, physical animal that had lain curled up inside her until this moment.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“So, in the end, I hoped that this novel would be judged by the same criteria that all novels should be judged by: Are the characters memorable? Is the story line credible? And does the novel help soften our hearts a little, does it induce in us feelings of compassion and empathy, does it make us understand something about human behavior in all its mysterious, even contradictory, glory?”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“Suddenly, he wanted all of them, wanted to gather them up—David and Delores, Juanita and Carine and Katherine, Uncle Connor and Brad—and place them in an orchestra that would play the music of his life. He wanted to leave out none of it—not the trombone, not the cello, not the cymbals or the violin. Synthesis. He needed a fusing together of all the strands of his life: past and present, black and white, poor and rich.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“But now he knew the truth—there were no adults. There were just tall children stumbling around the world, walking pools of unfinished hopes, unmet needs, and seething desires. The unsuccessful ones ended up in asylums. The ones who learned to masquerade those needs became politicians.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“no, a check, and pushing it at him. He took hold of”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son

“Hope, thin as a thread, sharp as a fishing line, cut into David's heart." p. 79”
― Thrity Umrigar, Everybody's Son