“You must have loved him very much,” she said. “Whisht,” said the old woman, “there’s a word that you must never use until there's marrying between you […] ”

Desert islands cannot harbour treachery, even from the enemy hidden within man himself.

But the term ‘godlike’ […] becomes exceedingly vague, for many gods have flourished in religious history, and their attributes have been discrepant enough.

I prefer to think of Iowa as I saw it through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy. Those were eyes filled with the wonders of Iowa’s streams and woods, of the mystery of growing crops.