Jemu watched his father disappear. He didn't throw the coconut and he didn't cry. Never again would he know love for another human being that wasn't adulterated by another, contradictory emotion.
Kiran DesaiRead
Could fulfillment ever be felt as deeply as loss? Romantically she decided that love must surely reside in the gap between desire and fulfillment, in the lack, not the contentment. Love was the ache, the anticipation, the retreat, everything around it but the emotion itself.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote explores the nature of love as an experience defined by longing rather than fulfillment.
Kiran Desai reflects on the complex nature of love, suggesting that true fulfillment in love may never reach the depth of the feelings associated with loss. The essence of love is portrayed as the yearning and anticipation that exists in the space between desire and satisfaction, indicating that the emotional experience of love encompasses the feelings of longing and absence rather than the resolution of those feelings.
Themes
LoveLongingAnticipationLossFulfillment
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the deeper meanings of love at a literary gathering.
More from Kiran Desai
All quotes →When he died, I went about like a ragged crow telling strangers, "My father died, my father died." My indiscretion embarrassed me, but I could not help it. Without my father on his Delhi rooftop, why was I here? Without him there, why should I go back? Without that ache between us, what was I made of?
Kiran DesaiRead
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