… this chapter about Buddy Willard, handsome Yalie, whom she decided she couldn’t love… the chapter a flashback about when he asked her to some dance… these two sentences are highlighted 855 times…

_ I decided to expect nothing from Buddy Willard. If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed._¹

… a double edged thought… expect nothing, get nothing goes the saying… it might be better to be disappointed in the long run…

… so far, i am feeling this novel is not the work of a full fledged novelist, that it has, here and there, clunky descriptions, that the story is not especially engrossing, the kind of novel one might read on the beach in the summer… H says it is depressing… i haven’t gotten to any bits that are depressed, unless you count the general malaise of being a human in this book…