All Due Recognition

All Due Recognition


I have pilfered my blog title from the beautiful book Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann. This novel details the early adult life of New Yorker Eveline Auerbach, and is one of the most intricate, thought-provoking and well-written books that I have ever read.

Excerpts from Anthropology of an American Girl:

"It's better to keep grief inside. Grief inside works like bees or ants, building curious and perfect structures, complicating you. Grief outside means you want something from someone, and chances are good you won't get it."

"And loneliness. I should say something of loneliness. The panic, the sweeping hysteria that comes not when you are without others, but when you are without yourself, adrift. I should describe the filthy province of mind, the blighted district inside, the place so crowded you cannot raise the lids of your eyes. Your shoulders are drawn and your head has fallen and your chest is bruised by the constant assault of your heart."