Happy abroad

Why did I hope we would be happy abroad?  A change of environment is the traditional fallacy upon which doomed loves, and lungs, rely.

p. 254, Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, Aug/Sept. 2010

At least one really good day

Every relationship has at least one really good day.  What I mean is, no matter how sour things go, there's always that day.  That day is always in your possession.  That's the day you remember.

p. 17, The Feast of Love, Charles Baxter, Sept. 2010

Default-mode negatives: husband material

Was this the classic instance of a smart woman selling herself short?  As the weeks went on and I grew to know him better, I thought of all these default-mode negatives:  he seemed not ignoble, not ill-spoken, not a bully, not inconsiderate, not obnoxious, not a boor, not violent, not distressing, not disdainful, not a bad dresser, not unmindful, not dirty or smelly, and not particularly ironic.  He was not unhandsome.  He was not unattractive.  In other words, he was husband material.  Simple as that.

p. 138, The Feast of Love, Charles Baxter, Sept. 2010