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Description
Lanie Coates’s life is spinning out of control. She’s piled everything she owns into a U-Haul and driven with her husband, Peter, and their three little boys from their cozy Texas home to a multiflight walkup in the Northeast. She’s left behind family, friends, and a comfortable life–all so... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Summary
Lanie Coates and her husband Peter move from Houston to Cambridge. In addition to leaving her family and friends behind, she decides to become reacquainted with herself when she bumps into an old highschool classmate and realizes how much she (lanie) has changed...and not for the better. With... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Cast of Characters/Important People
Memorable Quotes
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“I hate to say it, but I will. Children, despite their infinite charms, are an absolute assault on a marriage. They don't mean to be, but they are. We'd held up pretty well under the seige, and there was certainly still a lot of love, but it was nothing like the crazy, tingly I-can't-breathe-without-you love we'd kicked things off with.”
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“...sometimes there is no way to hold your life together. Sometimes things just have to fall apart.”
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“Photography will break your heart. You'll either have no talent for it, which will be awkward and make you feel worthless, or you'll be great at it, which will be worse.”
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“Because, the truth was, there was a dark underbelly of terror to motherhood. You loved your children with such an overwhelming fierceness that you were absolutely vulnerable at every moment every day: They could be taken from you. Somehow, you could lose them. You could stop at the corner to buy a newspaper when a drunk driver veered onto the sidewalk. ...The threats to your child were infinite. ANd the thing was, if any of your children's lives were ruined, even a little bit, yours would be, too.”
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“A marriage is such a fragile web of promises--to take out the trash; to pick up tomatoes at the market; to take the kids so the other can nap; to love, to honor, to cherish; to not kiss anyone else.”
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“In that moment, I suddenly loved us all the more for our flaws, for being broke and human, for being embarrassed and lonely, for being hopeful or tired or disappointed or sick or brave or angry. For being who we were, for making the world interesting. It was a good reminder that the human condition is imperfect. And that's how it's supposed to be.”
First Sentence
The day I decided to change my life, I was wearing sweatpants and an old oxford of Peter's with a coffee strain down the front.
Table of Contents
Authors & Contributors
- Katherine Center (Author)
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