must have got me mixed up with someone else.
Or the secret was so light that it was not even remembered.
22 Matching Annotations
- Jan 2026
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www.newyorker.com www.newyorker.com
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Simon Morgan
Simon Morgan could be the McGuffin.
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“I might be close to burnout.”
Reference back to P.
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I think that would be stretching it, bearing in mind this is a first date, and in any case I’m not sure I’ve got the quote right.
I keep noticing that he focuses on what to say and what not to say a lot.
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What a happy respite from the dark times!
First impressions and loneliness are a dangerous mix.
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Let sleeping dogs lie.
This is one of the defining character's features, his silence responses fall within this type of thinking.
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Three weeks later, I learn that P., who is forty-seven years old, has been dead for several days.
The foreshadowing before was very nice!
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but otherwise I keep my mouth shut.
The main character solves a lot of their problems this way.
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We’re all in the same boat here.”
People often deal with similar problems without realizing it.
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Why was she so rude to me?
This is also made abstract to the reader, building suspense.
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“That’s such a lonely story,” Sejal says.
Another portrayal of loneliness. Maybe in a joking manner, but loneliness.
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I want more of it.
Loneliness and stress are showing here as well.
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“What,” I ask, “would be meaningful stress?”
In many things that this character says I see a cry for help with his own stress.
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Fred says, “Too wrinkled? Nobody cares about wrinkles anymore.”
Brings up a thought how society cares much less about formality now than before.
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Is that strange? Am I an outlier?
This being the first thought that the main character has further showcases the emotional distress they are under.
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What path has she taken, what seas has she sailed to be here with me, holding my hand?
Things around are so deep that we cannot even fathom all of them. We simply do not have enough resources to do so.
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I have failed to act with the uberrima fides expected by good friends and insurance companies.
Yet, doing something nice even though it's in your way does not take away from the good deed. Doing convenient good deeds is still doing good deeds.
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We part company at the corner of his block. “You helped me out today,” P. says. “You’re a good friend.”
This may be one of these light secrets!
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“It’s anything that’s admirable,” he says. “Anything that would make people think better of you.”
Sometimes we don't have to try to be kind. All of us have qualities that are admirable without us trying to work for them, but just by being themselves.
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I fear that I am falling out of love with it. But this is a nice moment.
At times even the dearest things in our lives become mundane, as it is in human nature to associate things with places, and when continuously feeling distressed, one can end up hating even the happiest of places.
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We sit next to each other, rehydrating.
Much quality time does not have to be active, sometimes being around each other is more important than anything.
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But I remembered my father, and I confined myself to repeating after him, Burnout?
The main character is heavily influenced by his late(?) father.
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