Unhappy

'You are going to be very unhappy' said Molly, almost moaning it.
'Yes, that's another thing' said Tommy. 'The last time we discussed everything, you ended up saying, Oh, but you're going to be unhappy. As if it's the worst thing to be......'

Doris Lessing
Free Women 1
The Golden Notebook

Cloying mother

He was grateful to her for not wanting to look after him. For not offering to tidy his room. For not being his cloying mother. He grew to depend on Margaret for not depending on him. He adored her for not adoring him.

Arundhati Roy
The God of small things

A viable die-able age

Their lives (twins in their thirties) have a size and a shape now. Estha has his and Rahel hers.
Edges, Borders, Boundaries, Brinks and Limits have appeared like a team of trolls on their separate horizons. Short creatures with long shadows, patrolling the Blurry End. Gentle half-moons have gathered under their eyes and they are as old as Ammu was when she died. Thirty-one.
Not old.
Not young.
But a viable die-able age.

Arundhati Roy
The God of small things