What is the conqueror’s wife, if not a conquest herself? For that matter, what is he?

They are what there is to lose. A wife is the earth itself, changing hands, bearing scars.

I always believed any sin was easily rectified if only you let Jesus Christ into your heart, but here it gets complicated.

I had washed up there on the riptide of my husband’s confidence and the undertow of my children’s needs.

No wonder they hardly seemed to love me half the time—I couldn’t step in front of my husband to shelter them from his scorching light. They were expected to look straight at him and go blind.

I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence.

It is true I do not speak as well as I can think. But that is true of most people, as nearly as I can tell.