Unbelievable how the experience of being a woman with a “mysterious illness” has barely changed from 1892 to today. Really highlights the isolation of feeling bad but being told you’re healthy, the doctors didn’t find anything wrong.

Some quotes that struck me:

“If a physician of high standing, and one’s husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression — a slight hysterical tendency — what is one to do?”

“Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able — to dress and entertain, and order things.”

“I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little, it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me. But I find I get pretty tired when I try.”

“I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time.”

“I wish I could get well faster.” 💔

Another beautiful and quiet meditation from Claire Keegan. I didn’t quite enjoy as much as Small Things Like These, but nonetheless her prose is simple and profound. She’d flip from childlike observations reflecting the main character’s age to devastating quotes like “I am in a spot where I can neither be what I always am nor turn into what I could be.” The duality of girlhood 😭 9 year old girls really are having thoughts that could be discussed in college philosophy courses, and it’s just another Tuesday in her brain.

Overall this book made me want to hug my inner child and tell her she’s my favorite.