The Missing Years Quotes

“Writing a second book is not like writing the first. I don't mean that every book is different, though of course there's an element of that. The crucial difference is that when you write your first book, you don't have a publisher, which means you don't have a deadline. Deadlines-well. Deadlines put a whole new spin on this writing lark.”
― Lexie Elliott, The Missing Years

“I'm grateful, too, for the single-minded focus of young children when food is mentioned---all difficult topics of conversation have been instantly cast aside in favor of intense deliberating over exactly which biscuits to choose”
― Lexie Elliott, The Missing Years

“Don't you need to check on your mum, though? he asks Ali. "Nah, my brother or Holly are checking in on her tonight."

Presumably she's on her own too, since Ali's father upped and offed to continental Europe. It's odd to think that we have something in common, Ali and I: we both grew up without a paternal presence. I reach for the photo of that immortalized dinner party that hasn't yet left the kitchen. "Is this your mum?" I'm pointing to a small but woman with a smile on her face who's standing next to Ali's dad. Even though I'm looking for similarities, I can't see how she turned into the shriveled old woman, with her spiteful pinched mouth, that I encoun tered in the hotel. curvy

Ali takes it and squints slightly. "Aye. And my dad. Was that taken here, aye? God, she looks young then." There's a sadness around his eyes, and concern in Ben's as he looks at Ali.

"Funny to think our parents all knew one another, and here we are, having a drink together," I muse.

"That might be odd in London Town, but it's pretty much par for the course round here," says Ali, putting the photo down. "Very hard to escape the sins of our fathers when everybody around knows exactly what they were." He glances at me. "Shite. Sorry. Let's talk about some thing much less controversial. Like, erm, Scottish independence or something," he says, tongue in cheek.”
― Lexie Elliott, The Missing Years

“Perhaps these nights in Edinburgh will become more frequent, and I'll be spending evenings alone more often than not. It's an unsettling thought. The Manse is different with Carrie in it. It keeps time better, it hides its other faces, the bathroom door stays closed and the boiler flame doesn't snuff out. It behaves like the mere pile of bricks it ought to be.

God, I will have to cook.

I head to the fridge and eye up the contents despairingly. It's by no means bare, but everything in it requires effort: chopping or prepping or frying or grilling or possibly all of those; Carrie would know. But the fridge door has been open too long; it begins a low accusatory beeping. I close it and consider my options.

Fuck it. I can buy a microwave meal at the village shop.”
― Lexie Elliott, The Missing Years

“The damp cold squelching beneath my naked feet is deeply unpleasant”
― Lexie Elliott, The Missing Years

“Ah, so what's sauce for the gander isn't sauce for the goose then?”
― Lexie Elliott, The Missing Years

“Jonathan's apologies are works of art; they are three-act plays. He apologized, and I accepted that apology, therefore it must be over and done with. Except that I still feel the ring of those words. I still feel the weight of the abrupt realization of where I stand in the pecking order of Jonathan's life, the realization that if this, my mother's sudden death, is not significant enough, then there is nothing I can ever do to move up the order.”
― Lexie Elliott, The Missing Years

“I follow her lean figure across the bar. Her hair is pulled back loosely in an artful mess, and her maroon cashmere sweater has slipped off one shoulder. Everything about her screams casual, sloppy sexiness, I see how it draws the eyes of almost every man as we cross the floor. It's a wonder we are in any way related.”
― Lexie Elliott, The Missing Years

“They say you truly grow up when your parents die”
― Lexie Elliott, The Missing Years

“But I noticed that Ali's looking at me again, in a return of that jerky gaze which makes me feel like I'm watching a movie shot in the handheld camera style where the frame never quite stays still.”
― Lexie Elliott, The Missing Years