None of This Is True: A Novel

And there it is, the point which it all boils down to eventually. The point where there are no words, no theories, no explanations for behaviors that baffle and infuriate and hurt. Just that. Men.

life shows you the way when you forget to make one. So, you know, let’s wait and see.” She shrugs and heads back into the kitchen, scoops up the dog, and takes him to her room, where she waits until she hears the sound of Nathan slamming the front door behind him a few minutes later.

mottled glass mirror

And there it is, the point which it all boils down to eventually. The point where there are no words, no theories, no explanations for behaviors that baffle and infuriate and hurt. Just that. Men.

Then Josie says, “You have to be free in order to be in control, Alix. You have to be free. No baggage. A clean break. Like your friend Mari le Jeune said, the one from your podcast. Remember what she said, about clean breaks. Remember?”

still has the original curved bow windows at the front and a huge sash window at

life shows you the way when you forget to make one. So, you know, let’s wait and see.” She shrugs and heads back into the kitchen, scoops up the dog, and takes him to her room, where she waits until she hears the sound of Nathan slamming the front door behind him a few minutes later.

still has the original curved bow windows at the front and a huge sash window at

Then Josie says, “You have to be free in order to be in control, Alix. You have to be free. No baggage. A clean break. Like your friend Mari le Jeune said, the one from your podcast. Remember what she said, about clean breaks. Remember?”

She draws in her breath: a husband who groomed her as a fourteen-year-old child; a narcissistic mother; two problematic children; and brushes with social services. But the compelling things feel precious somehow, half-formed and delicate, not yet ready for the judgment of her husband.