A Few More Bon Mots from Shirley Hazzard

As I mentioned, I've been re-reading Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus. She's not note-perfect, but damned close. Her densely allusive, imagistic narrative is haunting and compelling. A few more bon mots:

Having been at someone's else's mercy suggests that mercy may matter (60-61).

The pain was an extension of experience, so new and astonishing as to have intellectual interest (207).