The Buddhist was my favourite story from this collection. Everything else was quite forgettable.

Temporal orientation influences, and is influenced by, one's position in war. Those few in power who determine a conflict are so detrimentally encouraged by a past-curated pride that they recklessly navigate the present with a mind gunning for the future. Resultantly, time is distorted for everyone involved; the narrative becomes confused.

This story is not told linearly: we begin with our main character's death. What follows is a stream of moments, disjointed through Nosaka's literary style, but always, unfailingly, time-stamped. It's as though a universal categorisation of time can perhaps make a collective sense of what happens to an individual's temporality during extreme suffering.

There's is so much more to be said about this short book

Generational trauma is funny until it goes on for 300+ pages

I think this would have been more horrific if told from the pov/focus of the father

this book had so much promise until about 40% of the way in

I persevered because I loved Tom Lake (first Patchett novel I read) so much!!!

this is no Tom Lake. idk what this was but I'm gonna have to forgive and forget otherwise I'll die apparently (which seemed to be the overarching message of the book)