Цитаты из книги Летние истории

Вы по­ни­ма­е­те, что та­кое бед­ность, и впра­ве рас­суж­дать о ней, толь­ко если сами че­рез нее про­шли. Если вы бед­ны. Или были бед­ны. Я под­хо­жу под обе ка­те­го­рии. Я ро­ди­лась и вы­рос­ла в бед­но­сти. И про­дол­жаю в ней жить.

If you want to know how poor somebody was growing up, ask them how many windows they had. Don’t ask what was in their fridge or in their closet. The number of windows says it all. It says everything. If they had none, or maybe one or two, that’s all you need to know.

But what’s it all for? Life is hard enough with just one body. Why would anyone ever want to make another one?

My life was like a dusty shelf in an old bookstore, where every volume was exactly where it had been for ages, the only discernible change being that my body has aged another ten years.

I was wondering about the “men” in “menarche.” Turns out it’s the same as the “men” in “menstruation.” It means “month,” which comes from “moon,” and has to do with women and their monthly cycle. Moon has all kinds of meanings. In addition to being the thing orbiting the earth, it can involve time, or tides, like the ebb and flow of the ocean. So, “menarche” has absolutely nothing to do with “men.” So why spell it that way? What happened to the “o”?