Of course I make my other comment and then see this post 10 seconds later.
Still, for Zevin, you enjoyed a lot of the quotes that really struck me, not to mention the long-running and very real-feeling never-quite-fully-realized relationship between Sam and Sadie, which felt like such an unusual story to tell.
The other thing that really kind of struck me is just that there seemed to be so much wisdom in a book from a relatively young author. She's probably my age (ish), and I just feel like there's so much I grow into and understand with every new experience I have, and she just already had so much of it internalized and with such good perspective/humility.
But it's not just talent...To take one of the quotes you chose:
Since she’d started teaching and become a mother, she’d felt old, but that night, she realized she wasn’t old at all. You couldn’t be old and still be wrong about as many things as she’d been wrong about, and it was a kind of immaturity to call yourself old before you were.
The talent is in the fact that even this ^ isn't intended to be taken fully at face value, because I think it's pretty clear that Zevin understands that somebody who is older will still be wrong about soooo many things. But the insight itself, about how one perceives aging over time and what that perception says about one's maturity? That feels like it's a step outside of just talent and into insight/wisdom.
Of course I make my other comment and then see this post 10 seconds later.
Still, for Zevin, you enjoyed a lot of the quotes that really struck me, not to mention the long-running and very real-feeling never-quite-fully-realized relationship between Sam and Sadie, which felt like such an unusual story to tell.
The other thing that really kind of struck me is just that there seemed to be so much wisdom in a book from a relatively young author. She's probably my age (ish), and I just feel like there's so much I grow into and understand with every new experience I have, and she just already had so much of it internalized and with such good perspective/humility.
She has more than a passing amount of talent
But it's not just talent...To take one of the quotes you chose:
Since she’d started teaching and become a mother, she’d felt old, but that night, she realized she wasn’t old at all. You couldn’t be old and still be wrong about as many things as she’d been wrong about, and it was a kind of immaturity to call yourself old before you were.
The talent is in the fact that even this ^ isn't intended to be taken fully at face value, because I think it's pretty clear that Zevin understands that somebody who is older will still be wrong about soooo many things. But the insight itself, about how one perceives aging over time and what that perception says about one's maturity? That feels like it's a step outside of just talent and into insight/wisdom.