aruizdesign

** spoiler alert ** Very moving tale of womanhood and growing up with rich detail and moving feelings. Favorite quotes (some spoilers): "If you want to understand any woman you must first ask about her mother and then listen carefully. Stories about food show strong connection. Wistful silences demonstrate unfinished business. The more a daughter knows the details of her mother's life - without flinching or whining - the stronger the daughter." pg.2 "I would be a woman soon and I would have to learn how to live with a divided heart." pg. 86 "Why had no one told me that my body would become a battlefield, a sacrifice, a test? Why did I not know that birth is the pinnacle where women discover to become mothers? But of course, there is no way to tell this or to hear it. Until you are the woman on the bricks, you have no idea how death stands in the corner, ready to play his part. Until you are the woman on the bricks, you do not know the power that rises from other women or even strangers speaking an unknown tongue, invoking the names of unfamiliar goddesses." pg 224 "The painful things- Werenro's story, Re-nefer's choice, even my own loneliness- seemed like the knots of a beautiful necklace, necessary for keeping the beads in place. My eyes filled as I bade farewell to those days, but I felt no regret." pg. 264 "In the moment before I crossed over, I knew the priests and magicians of Egypt were fools and charlatans for promising to prolong the beauties of life beyond the world we are given. Death is no enemy, but the foundation of gratitude, sympathy, and art. Of all life's pleasures, only love owes no debt to death." pg. 320 "Egypt loved the lotus because it never dies. It is the same for people who are loved." pg.321

2023-07-22 01:59