Still-Life with Eyeliner

Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb 

Just started reading a novel that a friend loaned me called "Sweetness in the Belly" by Camilla Gibb. It's interesting so far and I'm drawn to how the author moves narrative along while still maintaining suspense; it's a strange balancing act of relevant information that doesn't feel expository and a holding back of emotional information that will presumably be meaningful later.

Here's an excerpt that struck me:
"We know plenty of Ethiopians in London who do not even furnish their flats. What possessions they acquire sit in their cardboard boxes ready for transport. The tower of boxes holding televisions, toaster ovens, microwaves, electric heaters teeters to the left of the door, ready to be shipped at a moment's notice. They commit to nothing. They float on the myth of return."

Is that what it means to hope? Lately, I've been contemplating what that word really means, what it invokes, what it sacrifices.


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