I told my girlfriend that, so we'd be stranded, she could get a little friendlier, which she did, if you know what I mean.

Well, as with all our employees, she and I had a nice chat when she first joined us, but beyond that, I never had the privilege of getting to know her personally.

By getting close to women, to lure them to interrogations on the whereabouts of their husbands.

The closer you may be to a source, the better they may be, but then they have access to your life.

Radical neighborliness is just another word for true community, the kind bound by memory and history, mutual trust and familiarity built over years and irreplaceable.

As we became friends, I became their trustee and their medical advocate, but more importantly, I became the person who managed their end-of-life experiences.

(Laughter) If I feel like things are starting to spiral, I make an appointment to see my therapist, a dynamic black woman named Dawn Armstrong, who has a great sense of humor and a familiarity that I find comforting.

While he spends his days poring over old books and contemplating a strange painting and the library’s mysterious owner, he also befriends the librarian– who introduces him to classical music like Schubert.

In the novel, Rahel and Estha have a close relationship with Velutha, a worker in their family’s pickle factory and member of the so-called “untouchable” caste.