> Finally her mother said that if Natalia behaved herself for three months straight, stopped violating curfew and went to school, she could return home. Natalia did it, for the entire three months. The court date was set. It was expected to be a walk-through. Formally, the judge asked Natalia’s mother if she would allow her to return home. And her mother laughed. She laughed and said, 'I would never let that girl come live with me again.' The social worker told me Natalia screamed like an animal. She said she had to be held back by court officers.
This reads like something out of Dostoevsky. I like how simion314 puts it. "It is an interesting real life story, with real life problems, for me it showed me some new things, showed me how other people think and react." This is what is appealing about Dostoevsky too. For example, the following passage was illuminating to me:
> I asked why. I don’t remember what he said. I came away with the impression that my friend found the language I used too corny or therapeutic. And it was. Certainly my father would've found it so. But I don’t think that’s the only reason he walked away. If my language was a cliché, it was also heartfelt and naked. That kind of sudden nakedness, without even a posture of elegance, would've been a kind of violence to my father. It would've touched him forcefully in a place he had spent his life guarding. To say 'yes' would’ve allowed too much of that force in too deeply. Saying 'no' was a way of being faithful to the guarded place.
> Finally her mother said that if Natalia behaved herself for three months straight, stopped violating curfew and went to school, she could return home. Natalia did it, for the entire three months. The court date was set. It was expected to be a walk-through. Formally, the judge asked Natalia’s mother if she would allow her to return home. And her mother laughed. She laughed and said, 'I would never let that girl come live with me again.' The social worker told me Natalia screamed like an animal. She said she had to be held back by court officers.
This reads like something out of Dostoevsky. I like how simion314 puts it. "It is an interesting real life story, with real life problems, for me it showed me some new things, showed me how other people think and react." This is what is appealing about Dostoevsky too. For example, the following passage was illuminating to me:
> I asked why. I don’t remember what he said. I came away with the impression that my friend found the language I used too corny or therapeutic. And it was. Certainly my father would've found it so. But I don’t think that’s the only reason he walked away. If my language was a cliché, it was also heartfelt and naked. That kind of sudden nakedness, without even a posture of elegance, would've been a kind of violence to my father. It would've touched him forcefully in a place he had spent his life guarding. To say 'yes' would’ve allowed too much of that force in too deeply. Saying 'no' was a way of being faithful to the guarded place.