Neil Genzlinger in The New York Times Book Review (Jan. 28, 2011): "If you didn’t feel you were discovering something as you wrote your memoir, don’t publish it. "
Here are a few quotes that hint at some of Rhoda Janzen's discoveries:
About faith:
“When you’re young, faith is often a matter of rules. What you should do and shouldn’t do, that kind of thing. But as you get older, you realize that faith is really a matter of relationship—with God, with the people around you, with the members of your community” (137).
"Some things are better than reason. Some things actually defy reason. And that's okay" (196).
"I suddenly felt destiny as a mighty and perplexing force, an inexorable vurrent that sweeps us off into new channels" (214).
About the body:
"Mom's stoicism regarding the body and all its functions was really almost Christian in its ideation of openness and transparency" (164)
About Nick:
"His wracked misery, his anger at God, his creative brooding, were in some ways attractive to me. These qualities orbited me, too, like shadowy moons around Jupiter" (215).
"Without my husband I had somehow drifted back to this point of origin, as if my turbulent marriage had been a long journey on dark waters that had propelled me away from everything known and safe" (224).
"[T]he music was gentle as a hand on the small of the back, nudging me forward--the sound of my heritage, my future" (224).
About love:
"Is it ever really a waste of time to love someone, truly and deeply, with everything you have?" (78)
"[T]he simple, practiced presence that love demands" (171).
"[I]t's when you don't love somebody that you do notice the little things. Then you mind them. You mind them terribly" (181).
"Sexiness comes down to three things: chemistry, sense of humor, and treatment of waitstaff at restaurants" (203).
These are great quotes you picked out. They are even able to connect with something (love, faith, etc.). What do you think she would say about the quotes connecting with something or what do you hope she would say? I don't tend to find quotes that relates to something. I only read for the enjoyment. What I mean is that I don't read a quote and be like, "Oh! That relates to...!" Other than that, great work on finding these!
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