Moments of clarity

It's not often that you can say that a novel sums things up perfectly. Particularly when that novel is of the dark fantasy romance genre and if there was an imprint in the Mills and Boon series that catered to the supernatural BDSM crowd, it would most likely end up there (hell, for all I know there is such an imprint!).

So it is unexpected to be reading a Laurell K Hamilton book, A Lick of Frost (the latest in the Merry Gentry series - Merry could loosely be described as bonking her way to the throne), and discover not one but two things that really speak to you. God, that sounds wanky, doesn't it? Reminds you of one of those show-offs you occasionally stumble across in the art gallery.

Hell, maybe it was just that I was in the right frame of mind. Or that I was looking for things that weren't there. Feel free to tell me if you think I am completely insane for finding these worth repeating.

The second one first I think. This didn't hit me as much as the other one, but still it meant something to me:

The constitution of our country says that all men are created equal, but it's a lie. I'll never be able to make a jump shot like Magic Johnson, or drive a car like Mario Andretti, or paint like Picasso. We are not created equal in talent. But the place where we are least equal is in the heart. You can work at a talent, take lessons, but love, love either works or it doesn't. You love someone or you don't. You can't change it, you can't undo it.

And the one that made me stop reading for a few minutes. I had to read it a couple of times before I could move on with the rest of the book:

It is not merely happiness we all seek. We seek some place where we belong. For the lucky few, we find it in childhood with our own families. But for most of us we spend our adult lives seeking that place or person or organization that makes us feel we are important, that we matter, and that without us something would go undone and undoable. We all need to feel that we are irreplaceable.

So there you have it. It's not often you can say you've found something meaningful in the pages of a book that can otherwise be described as an author's continuing exercise in the alienation of her fans.