I agree! It seemed like a predictor of the the strength of character that let her gather herself up for social and political activism after being pretty much smashed by the war.

Additional note, reading sad books on a plane is something I’ve done once and was kind of weird, because I had to keep closing the book to regain my composure and then I’d open it up again and read some more until my threshold was reached, and then close it again for a while.

Oh, and you know what made me love Vera? Was how important it was to her to find out exactly what had happened to Roland, even though the details must have been painful to learn. That was touching, somehow.

Actually, if I were feeling sorry for myself for non-loneliness type reasons (such as sickness), this would be the perfect book for me. I could cry at the book and then not feel self-indulgent for crying when sick. :p

You can’t forget. The book will always remind you. It is terribly sad. 🙁

I…didn’t put that in my review ONLY BECAUSE I didn’t notice it until you said it just now. My bad. Standards have relaxed over Christmas break and whatnot.

*cracks up* That needs to happen.

Oh, yeah, there’s definitely a place for sad books in my life. I just chose a bad moment. :p

I know! I need all my siblings! :p

Thank you for your acknowledgement of the Thurlow resemblance. I showed a couple of my coworkers and they disagreed! Somehow!

Oh, I don’t catastrophize on planes. I feel perfectly fine on planes. But I would — and did — start worrying about what I would do if war were declared and everyone including me had to go off to war, and whether the government would grant me conscientious objector status because I’m a pacifist or if they wouldn’t do that anymore, and then how sad it would be to lose my friends to a terrible war…

Jolly letters would have been better. You’re quite right. I won’t make such a silly mistake again.