When I finished, I felt I had been washed clean, that I had sloughed off something old and heavy.

If Mann’s intent in writing Attachments could be distilled into one phrase, fatherhood as multitude may fit.

Oh, what we will do to be seen!

They discuss the messiness and double standards that come from talking about gender, sexuality, and eroticism, especially in academic settings.

Measured sentences draw the reader into the emotional dome she inhabits. The book’s even tone avoids associative leaps and instead mirrors the quotidian effort to keep going, day after day.

His central question: what does being Puerto Rican mean to me now, given that it has meant nothing through most of my life?

All these strategies prod both the reader and the narrator to consider what she isn’t prepared to express outright.

Crossman doesn’t want to put a bow on things--the fear of loss persists; it’s merely taken new shape.

The title of this collection of essays is as much an admission as a threat. Or rather, as much an explanation as an expiation.

As the book drew to a close, I was filled with the same satisfied fatigue as when leaving a vast museum.