Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (2007) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters edit see section history

• James Sveck: Narrator, main character.
• Nanette: James' maternal grandmother
• Gillian Sveck: James' older sister
• John Webster: Add a description of this character.
• Dr. Adler: James' psychiatrist
• Barry Rogers
• Rainer Maria Schultz: Language Theory professor at Barnard. A Married man that is dating Gillian,
• Miro: Jame's and his family's poodle.
• Jeanine
• Myron Axel
• Dakin

Quotes edit see section history

• “I had no desire to go to college, and practically from the moment I was accepted at Brown, I had been trying to devise a feasible alternative plan, but it had seemed inevitable- not going to college was simply not an option I thought I had.”

  James

• “And then I thought that if smart, interesting people studied at the Sorbonne and worked at Sotheby's and I had done neither of those things, did that mean I was boring and stupid ?”

  James

• “You think misleading someone and putting them in an embarrassing situation is a joke ?”

  James mother

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Most people think things are not real unless they are spoken, that it’s the uttering of something, not the thinking of it, that legitimizes it. I suppose this is why people always want other people to say “I love you.” I think just the opposite—that thoughts are realest when thought, that expressing them distorts or dilutes them, that it is best for them to stay in the dark climate-controlled airport chapel of your mind, that if they’re released into the air and light they will be affected in a way that alters them, like film accidentally exposed.

  Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers

• I think that’s what scares me: the randomness of everything. That the people who could be important to you might just pass you by.

  Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers

• People always think that if they can prove they’re right, you’ll change your mind.

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

• People who have had only good experiences aren’t very interesting. They may be content, and happy after a fashion, but they aren’t very deep.

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

• Sometimes I envy religious people for the comfort of believing. It would make everything so much easier.

  Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers

• Even the motto of Camp Zephyr was sinister: “Be Patient and Tough; Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You.”

  Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers

• I think funny is something you are, not something you desperately try to be in front of a roomful of obnoxious people.

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• I wish the whole day were like breakfast, when people are still connected to their dreams, focused inward, and not yet ready to engage with the world around them.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• I don’t think I could ever work in such a blatantly hierarchical corporate setting. I know that everyone in this world is not equal, but I can’t bear environments that make this truth so obvious.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• what she didn’t know was that the story of the woman who disappeared like that didn’t make me sad, I didn’t think it was tragic that she left the world without effect. I thought it was beautiful. To die like that, to disappear without a trace, to sink without disturbing the surface of the water, not even a telltale bubble rising to the surface, like sneaking out of a party so no one notices you’re gone.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• New York City
• Washington
• Kansas
• Midwest
• D.c.
• Indiana
• Manhattan
• Hartsdale
• Getty Museum
• Stuyvesant

First Sentence edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Peter Cameron (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Lambda Literary Award (Finalist, 2007: LGBT Children's/Young Adult)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Social Issues › Homosexuality › Fiction
• Books › Teens › Social Issues › Being a Teen

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history