—Alain de Botton Melody didn’t have a game plan when she knocked on Clark’s door. If she’d taken the time to draw one up, she probably wouldn’t be sitting on his lap now, streaming snot and spewing forth a babbling confession about how much she’d been thinking about him, day and night. &nbs...
—Punjabi proverb Monica’s father’s voice was calm. “All we’re saying is, it can’t hurt to meet him, can it?” “I don’t know, Papa. You know I’m leaving in three months.” In the background, her mother’s voice rose sharply. “He’s studying to be a urolo...
—Jim Harrison Merle Haggard’s “Workin’ Man Blues” buzzed from busted speakers as Caleb pulled up the long driveway of his family’s ranch. His mother reached over his snoozing father to crank the window closed against the rising dust. Without air-conditioning, the truck cab sweltered in the summer...