What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

“Montse saw that the Señora sometimes grew short of breath though she’d

hardly stirred. A consequence of snatching images out of the air—the air took something back.”

Montserrat admires the deep, artistic passion of Lucy. Montserrat’s fascination with Lucy is juxtaposed with Lucy’s own fascination with her art—the breathless admiration of something that seems to have come from beyond. The idea of the air “taking something back” references the idea that artists get their inspiration from an unknown spiritual source, but it frames this as a two-way street; these reversals in the respective positions of artist, art, and spectator/reader occur throughout the collection.

“According to Stendhal it takes about a year and a month to fall in love, all

being well. Maybe we fell faster because all was not well with us[.]”

Marie-Henri Beyle, known under the pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Isidoro and Aurelie share a love of books and reading together, and Stendhal’s quote represents the urgency of their relationship. Aurelie’s recognition of their lack of time foreshadows the tragedy that is to befall them.

“I don’t tell Ched how often the things he says come true. That’s for his own

good, of course, so that he stays humble.”

Chedorlaomer has an ability to hear what other people can’t, allowing him access to knowledge beyond himself. Anton, as his best friend, has noticed this ability more than Ched has. Ched’s statements act as both foreshadowing and as unwitting predictions of things that will happen.

“Aisha may have abandoned tails for good, but allheal plants are flowering in her window box, she’s working on reducing the aphrodisiac effect of an otherwise very convenient headache cure, and she’s looking forward to Matyas Füst’s forthcoming book, An Outcast’s Apology. She reckons Füst is getting closer to identifying his mistake, and says he should keep trying.”

Aisha has been forced to grow up because of the entire ordeal with Matyas, but she hasn’t lost herself in the process. This quote almost creates a circular plot, ending with Aisha in a similar place to where she was when the story first introduces her. However, Matyas’s downfall and continued efforts to atone for his violent behavior toward women provide resolution to the central conflict of the story.

“A beauty that rattles you until you’re in tears, that was my introduction to Rowan Wayland. You and the puppet—I decided it was a puppet—were leaping through one upright rectangle into another. An open door through an open door, and in the corner of that distant room was a cupboard, fallen onto its side.”

Doors and keys recur as a motif throughout the book. Rowan and Myrna seem to be jumping through a door, just as Radha is preparing to open a door to her new life as a puppeteer. The leap that Rowan and Myrna take together represents Radha’s step toward her own future. Featuring Myrna’s photograph just before Radha’s audition builds tension—Radha specifically wants to work with Myrna—and the beautiful Rowan being next to Myrna foreshadows her choosing someone else.

“No matter how soft his skin appears to be he is entirely wooden, and it is not known exactly what animates him—no clock ticks in his chest. Rowan is male to me since he moves and speaks with a grace that reminds me of the boys and men of my Venetian youth. He’s female to Myrna. For Radha and Gustav Rowan is both male and female. Perhaps we read him along the lines of our attractions; perhaps it really is as arbitrary as that. He just shrugs and says: ‘Take your pick. I’m mostly tree, though.’”

Gepetta explains how Rowan’s appearance shifts according to different characters’ perceptions—an example of The Magical in the Mundane. Rowan exists at several intersections, including feminine and masculine, living and inanimate. The question of Rowan’s humanity is just as vague and uncertain as the question of Rowan’s gender, illustrating the difficulty of fully conceptualizing another person. Rowan is a projection of the beliefs and standards of the person viewing them.

“All I knew how to do with puppets, all I used to want to do, was play unsettling tricks. That’s not enough anymore. I want to put on stubborn little shows, find places here and there where we get to see what we’d be like if we were actually in control of anything. Cruel fantasies, maybe, but they can’t hurt any more than glimpsing a galaxy does.”

Tyche compares the human condition to the puppets she works with in her art: The puppets’ lack of autonomy mirrors humanity’s lack of autonomy in society. Glimpsing a galaxy represents awareness of the insignificance of humanity on a cosmic level. This quote gets to the story’s central idea: the question of what it means to be alive or have autonomy.

“It was the usual struggle between one who loves by accepting burdens and one who loves by refusing to be one.”

Myrna’s ability to remove the pain from anyone strains her relationship with her chronically ill mother. Her mother’s decision to let her move away with her father is a sacrifice made out of love. Myrna had accepted her place as someone who was meant to carry the burdens of others, but her mother gives Myrna permission to protect herself from those burdens as she grows up. This dynamic also comments on how society often expects women and girls to carry the burdens of others.

“Like the confection she left traces of herself about anybody she came into contact with—sweetness, fragrance. ‘Ah, so you have been with her…’”

Lokum is nicknamed for the dessert, which is also known as Turkish delight. Lokum is traditionally made with rosewater and is highly fragrant. The comparison suggests that Lokum is a fetching person who leaves a strong impression on the people whom she meets.

“I remember a dawn when my heart / got tied in a lock of your hair.”

This quote is an excerpt from a poem by Rumi. Arkady recites the first two lines of the poem to Lokum after she tests a drug on him. It is a clear declaration of love and would have resulted in Arkady’s execution, which is why Lokum responds by firing him. This becomes an inciting incident, causing Arkady to lose a source of income and his apartment inside the building that later burns down.

“He dreamed of the key writhing in the fire, and he dreamed of faces coughing out smoke amidst the flames, each face opening up into another like the petals of a many-layered sunflower, and he was woken by police officers.”

Arkady puts the key to his old building in the fire to stop Giacomo from obsessing over their old home; he then has this seemingly prophetic dream, which is a turning point in the story. Arkady takes the blame for the burned building because he cannot be sure if the dream was something he actually witnessed. The fire could also be a manifestation of the key’s magic, igniting when the key burned. Nonetheless, the situation reflects the real-world criminalization of the impoverished and marginalized, whose mere existence society treats as suspect. 

“Do you think that maybe we’re able to love someone best when that person doesn’t know how we feel?”

Jacob felt romantic attraction toward Jill for years before the two of them married. He asks this question just before proposing to Jill. The question asks whether it’s easier to love someone from afar rather than in an existing relationship and relates to the collection’s exploration of Love in Its Many Stages. This quote also represents the central idea of “Presence,” which centers on doubts within a relationship and the possibility of ever truly knowing someone.

“One of the things that she’d learned about him early on was that he had an inbuilt and near-infallible lie detector, and all of a sudden she wasn’t sure whether what she’d really been doing for the past few weeks was skillfully molding her own desire to be single again into an image of his. It could be that all Jill’s leaving and being left had now made it impossible for her to stay with anyone.”

Jill’s insecurity in her marriage to Jacob comes from two previous failed marriages and time in the foster care system as a child. She projects this insecurity onto Jacob, constantly worrying that he’s more interested in Vi than her. This quote is an example of the story’s introspective quality as Jill examines her own fears about romance and connection.

“Honoring delicacy over full disclosure only comes back to haunt you in the end.”

The original Homely Wenches opt to be honest with the women whom the Bettencourt Society deemed “homely” to present a united front against the men’s social club. The quote is about rejecting politeness in favor of honesty, which is much the same lesson that Dayang and the current-day Wenches learn.

“With boys there was a fundamental assumption that they had a right to be there—not always, but more often than not. With girls, Why her? came up so quickly.”

Dayang recognizes the reality that Hercules doesn’t, which is that society often judges women and girls more harshly than men, especially on the basis of attractiveness. This is the central idea that launched the Homely Wench Society. This quote also characterizes Dayang as someone who has witnessed and experienced the effects of gender bias in her life, recalling her previous appearance in “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea.” Her experiences shape how she relates to the male characters that she encounters.

“‘The truth is, that fellow is modeled on me…’

‘Wasn’t he killed by the woodchopper?’

‘Yes, yes, but go back to the beginning and there he is again, ready for action. This is the beginning again, and I thought you were her. The wolf gets to eat a lot before she comes along…’”

Dornička speaks to the “wolf”—or the entity that ate a wolf and wears its skin. The “wolf” claims to be the basis for the Big Bad Wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood.” He assumes that Dornička is the little girl from the story, who symbolizes the young and innocent girls who are preyed on by predatory forces as they grow up. The “wolf” also hints at the repetition of themes throughout various myths and fairy tales as a meta-commentary on storytelling. The “wolf” gets to “eat a lot” because the wolf figure exists in many different stories; Dornička’s and Little Red Riding Hood’s are just two examples.

“Tadeáš’s disapproval came through to her quite clearly: You shouldn’t have promised that creature anything. But she couldn’t regret her promise when it had been a choice between that or the ‘wolf’ waiting for the next one.”

Tadeáš is Dornička’s deceased husband, whom she speaks to at the cemetery on All Souls’ Day, a Catholic holiday that falls on November 2. The disapproval of Dornička’s husband highlights the conundrum that she faces; she promised to feed the wolf with good intentions, but she has nearly no way to fulfill the pledge. Nevertheless, Dornička puts herself in the role of the hero figure, aiming to break the cycle of the “wolf” stories through personal sacrifice.

“The goose appeared to have almost doubled in size overnight. Her eyes were bigger too. She looked at Dornička as if she was about to call her by name.”

The goose becomes self-aware as a result of eating Dornička’s lump. This is a magical element, implying that by eating the lump, the goose knows what Dornička knows: that it must become a sacrifice to the “wolf” to protect someone else. The goose is transformed, becoming like the anthropomorphic animals in stories like “Little Red Riding Hood” and thus resolving Dornička’s fairy tale.

“Consent is a downward motion, I think—a leap or a fall—and whether they’ll admit it or not, even the most decisive people can find themselves unable to tell whether or not their consent was freely given. That inability to discover whether you jumped or were pushed brings about a deadened gaze and a downfall all on its own.”

Freddy speculates about why Aisha won’t agree to have penetrative sex by contemplating consent’s ability to function in practice. This quote also foreshadows Freddy’s involvement in Jean Claude’s plan to break up Tyche and Chedorlaomer. He initially accepts the payment to break up the couple but then finds himself struggling to complete a task that he is not sure he truly wants to perform. The healthy, consenting relationship between Tyche and Chedorlaomer contrasts with this struggle. 

“He freely admitted that Tyche was his first love, admitted this to anyone who’d listen. Wherever he was, the delectable, ambrosial Tyche Shaw wasn’t far away. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. A blended scent rose from their skins—sulfurous, sickly, sweet.”

Chedorlaomer and Tyche’s love is so passionate that it is clear that Freddy will struggle to complete the task for which he has been hired. The olfactory imagery of the “sulfurous, sickly, sweet” smell that comes from the couple sets up the couple’s unusual—even supernatural—attachment. Ambrosia, the drink of the gods in Greek mythology, is a nourishing (if not intoxicating) substance, and comparing Tyche to it suggests that Freddy has been tasked with the impossible.

“Suspect me if that’s what you want to do. What’s the point of me saying any more than I’ve said…is it eloquence that makes you believe things?

You are all morons.”

The grandmother of the main character says this, but the quote also applies to Eva, who takes a similar attitude to the office workers who gossip about her. This is a dramatic parallel that illustrates the crux of the story, which is that people often build up images of others in their minds that have little resemblance to those people’s true selves.

“I was trying to figure out how to be a better friend, though, just like she was. I just thought I should keep a record of that time. Like she did. And I wrote it from thirteen to fifteen, like she did.”

Eva becomes inspired by Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl at the age of 13 and decides to keep a journal. Like Anne Frank, she seeks to put her true voice into the pages of a book.

“You go toward the book, slowly and reluctantly—if only you could close this book remotely—but the closer you get to the book the greater the waning of the light in the room, and it becomes more difficult to actually move, in fact it is like walking through a paper tunnel that is folding you in, and there’s chatter all about you[.]”

This quote is from the moment after “you” open the locked journal, glimpsing the life of its writer just as the reader (i.e., “you”) has glimpsed the lives of the characters throughout the collection. The imagery of the book becoming a paper tunnel that surrounds “you” represents the intertextuality that exists between the reader and the stories with which they engage. The reader cannot simply exist outside of stories without bringing some of themselves into them, nor can the story exist without incorporating some of the reader.