Her rage shrunk as the air from the pressure cooker escaped. And she felt her eyes were welling up. She was too exhausted for another fight. Her daily life was an ongoing fight with herself, her daughter, and her ex-husband. And with all the misgivings and prejudice she had to face as a third-world citizen in the Netherlands. - P18
They were all seen in the category of "Asian women who married European men for a better life than home." The possibility that these women all had their own stories and the reality that it wasn’t always better than the home was often overlooked. - P19
"Your wifi is not working now?" Frank thought of lying to her. Yes, it is working fine, thank you very much, none of your business, you nosy mother of a student. But he changed his mind because everyone had the same router, and lying about it would deteriorate his already gravely damaged reputation. "No. As you see, it is not." She slowly nodded. - P21
Frank somehow didn’t want her to go. - P21
"You can call me Jane." "Call me, Frank, too." Both of them fell into silence, and Ms. Lee, no Jane, quietly sipped her espresso. - P21
"Apology accepted." Frank felt half-relieved and half-bewildered by her prompt, no-nonsense acceptance. - P22
She was wearing a black woolen dress, with black leggings and black ankle boots. Her shoulder-length hair and eyes were ink-black, so anything that was not black on her was her red lipstick and a thin golden chain over her neck. Oh, and her rather pale face. She had a shadow of light purple colour on her eyelids, so she must have been wearing some make-up, although Frank wasn’t an expert on that subject. - P23
Jane was clearly concerned with her daughter’s school and interested enough to care so much about her grade. Frank wondered why her ex-husband was slagging about her like that the last time they met. - P23
Jane must have read what he was thinking. - P23
Jane looked almost startled to hear the sympathetic words from a stranger. She smiled again, off-guarded. - P23
"Why is he so mean to you?"
It came out before Frank could stop himself. - P23
"No. Because to understand someone, you would have to be like the person. I would have to think like him and feel like him. Full of hatred, bitterness, and disparagement. To understand him would be accepting and acknowledging his logic and action. I can’t. I refuse it." - P24
Then a slight smile, "As all the Dutch people say, entitled to my opinion, I am too." - P24
"Oh, no, I am used to that saying. You don’t know how many times I’ve heard it here. In fact, I’ve come to appreciate that Dutch attitude more than before. I’ve seen the benefit of such a stance. Because it gives people a voice, doesn’t it? Better than the ‘keep your mouth shut’ attitude." - P24
"Talking about people’s attitudes brought me a painful memory." Then she took a deep breath. "Do you know that there was a ferry accident in South Korea last year?" - P25
"Stay still." Jane stayed still. Frank stayed still, too. - P25
"For many years, I used to find it impossible to say what I thought and do as I believed. Everyone else here was doing so, except for me, and I felt people walked all over me. But seeing these children losing their precious lives made me realize that I needed to speak up too. I can’t still do it very well, but I am trying." - P25
He looked into Jane’s eyes, big and round like Mia’s. They were dark as the tree and shining like the moon of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. - P26
He pointed at the yellow ribbon on her bag. - P27
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - P27
"You don’t know how many people told me to forget and move on. I tried, but it didn’t go away. Time heals many things but not everything. So I decided to live with it. I remember to remember. Otherwise, it would mean nothing, and it is such a shame to waste the suffering." - P28
"If we had to and were able to suffer the sufferings of everyone, we could not live." [1] "Primo Levi." - P28
Then he couldn’t say anything anymore. He was bewildered by this unreal visitor of his, and the only thing going through his disheveled head was, ‘What an extraordinary woman!’ - P28
"Thank you for coming." Frank could hit his head against the wall. As if he had invited her for a nice cup of coffee! "Well, I think it was needed." Jane smiled her little smile, and the muscles around Frank’s heart twitched. "Yes, I agree that it was needed." He murmured when the door closed, and there was a whiff of warm, flowery scent left in his empty hall. - P29
Jane was afraid unless she fed Mia the most delicious meal that her daughter might forget her and not come back. - P30
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