Jeffrey Eugenides: Likeness

“She held herself very straight, like Audrey Hepburn, whom all women idolize and men never think about.”

“In the end we had the pieces of the puzzle, but no matter how we put them together, gaps remained, oddly shaped emptinesses mapped by what surrounded them, like countries we couldn't name.”

“He remained heartbroken, which meant one of two things: either his love was pure and true and earthshakingly significant; or he was addicted to feeling forlorn, he liked being heartbroken.”

“It was possible to feel superior to other people and feel like a misfit at the same time.”

“So do boys and men announce their intentions. They cover you like a sarcophagus lid. And call it love.”

“The trees like lungs filling with air
My sister, the mean one, pulling my hair”

“Their desire was silent yet magnificent, like a thousand daisies attuning their faces toward the path of the sun.”

“College wasn't like the real world. In the real world people dropped names based on their renown. In college, people dropped names based on their obscurity.”

“But, like anyone in love, Madeleine believed that her own relationship was different from every other relationship, immune from typical problems.”

“There comes a moment, when you get lost in the woods, when the woods begin to feel like home.”

“She could become a spinster, like Emily Dickinson, writing poems full of dashes and brilliance, and never gaining weight.”

“It was like autumn, looking at her. it was like driving up north to see the colors.”

“What if you had faith and performed good works, what if you died and went to heaven, and what if all the people you met there were people you didn't like?”

“They thought depression was like bieng 'depressed'. They thought it was like being in a bad mood, only worse. Therefore, they tried to get him to snap out of it.”