Apparently Even The Most Awful Tragedies, And

Meg Was Going To Have To Learn For Herself What Laurie Had Figured Out Over The Summer - That It Was Better To Leave Well Enough Alone, To Avoid Unnecessary Encounters With The People You'd Left Behind, To Not Keep Poking At That Sore Tooth With The Tip Of Your Tongue. Not Because You Didn't Love Them Anymore, But Because You Did, And Because That Love Was Useless Now, Just Another Dull Ache In Your Phantom Limb.

I Write About Kids Growing Up, I Write A Lot About Schools And Parents, And All Of My Experiences With Those Things Have Been Suburban Experiences.

I Was A Garbage Man In New Jersey In Summers During College At Yale. Everybody Else Got To Go To Switzerland And I Got To Go To The Dump.

I Really Wanted To Be A Musician, But It Turned Out I Had No Sense Of Time.

She Would Be A Mentor And An Inspiration To Girls Like Herself, The Quiet Ones Who'd Sleepwalked Their Way Through High School, Knowing Nothing Except That They Couldn't Possibly Be Happy With Any Of The Choices The World Seemed To Be Offering Them.