They Stayed, Many Of Them,

Since Her Retirement From Teaching Miss Beryl's Health Had In Many Respects Greatly Improved, Despite Her Advancing Years. An Eighth-grade Classroom Was An Excellent Place To Snag Whatever Was In The Air In The Way Of Illness. Also Depression, Which, Miss Beryl Believed, In Conjunction With Guilt, Opened The Door To Illness. Miss Beryl Didn't Know Any Teachers Who Weren't Habitually Guilty And Depressed-guilty They Hadn't Accomplished More With Their Students, Depressed That Very Little More Was Possible.

You Can Be Interested In A Jane Smiley Novel Whether Or Not Anyone Says A Word. She Enters Into Her Characters Thoughts With Great Understanding And Depth.

My Books Are Elegiac In The Sense That They're Odes To A Nation That Even I Sometimes Think May Not Exist Anymore Except In My Memory And My Imagination.

In The End It All Came Down To Companionship, To Friendship, To Sacrifice, To Compromise.

The World Is Divided Between Kids Who Grow Up Wanting To Be Their Parents And Those Like Us, Who Grow Up Wanting To Be Anything But. Neither Group Ever Succeeds.