1Q84: Book 3 (2Q84 2)

It’s a Barnum and Bailey world, Just as phony as it can be, But it wouldn’t be make-believe If you believed in me.

People naturally pay their respects to the dead. The person had, after all, just accomplished the personal, profound feat of dying.

tatami.

“Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa.”

As his father lay on this plain bed in the sanatorium by the shore, at the same time he might very well be surrounded by scenes and memories invisible to others, in the still darkness of a back room in his own vacant house.

Principles and logic didn’t give birth to reality. Reality came first, and the principles and logic followed.

The whole concept of getting something out of his system was something he might be lacking.

The two of them didn’t know it at the time, but this was the only truly complete place in the entire world. Totally isolated, yet the one place not tainted with loneliness.

To rephrase Tolstoy’s famous line, all happiness is alike, but each pain is painful in its own way.

Absconded