Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Joy of Reading - Left Neglected

...from Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

We kiss good-bye.  It’s our typical morning good-bye kiss.  A quick peck.  A well-intentioned habit.  I look down and notice Lucy’s round, blue eyes paying close attention.  I flash to studying my own parents kissing when I was little.  They kissed each other hello and good-bye and good night like I would have kissed one of my aunts, and it terribly disappointed me.  There was no drama to it at all.  I promised myself that when I got married some day, I would have kisses that meant something.  Kisses that would make me weak in the knees.  Kisses that would embarrass the kids.  Kisses like Han Solo kissing Princess Leia.  I never saw my father kiss my mother like that.  What was the point of it?  I never got it.  Now I get it.  We aren’t living in some George Lucas blockbuster adventure.  Our morning kiss good-bye isn’t romantic, and it certainly isn’t sexual.  It’s a routine kiss, but I’m glad we do it.  It does mean something.  It’s enough.

5 comments:

Les said...

It's been almost a year since I read this marvelous book. I included this quote in my review. Love it! I hope you're enjoying the book.

Nan said...

I will read this book!
You know, I think kids don't really like to see their parents kissing in anything but a perfunctory way, especially after they reach the age of 'romance' themselves. :<)

Marcia said...

Les~We both picked out a somewhat similar kiss passage from another book--Entering Normal maybe? I have a note in the book notes to find that other kiss passage. One of these days....

Nan~Did you read Still Alice? While I was very much taken by Left Neglected, Alice was a much more emotional read for me.

Les said...

I think it was Step.Ball.Change by Jeanne Ray.

Marcia said...

Yes! Step.Ball.Change. The Entering Normal quote was about comments made at funerals (pretty far removed from kissing, eh?)--"He was such a wonderful man" and all the silent, in her mind, rebuttals the main character had to that remark. Lordy, I need to find that reading notebook and get my quotes straightened out!