The Quote Maker

“Catnapping is a skill everyone should have.” Truth.

40.12 Angelmaker

I love little things. I marvel over the hands that can take such small items and make them function. How can they see and touch with such delicacy? From doll house furniture to mini erasers to jewelry, I have had this fascination for as long as I can remember. So immediately upon meeting Joe in his clock repair shop, I was in love.

What a book!  It is impossible to describe: part steam punk, part spy versus spy, part good versus evil.  All fun!  The names, the devices, the amazing female characters - those “woman of consequence” - and the quotes.  My god the quotes!  I have never found so may funny, thoughtful quotes that I had to stop and read twice all in one place.  

“Particularly now, when thirty years of age is visible in his rear-view mirror and forty glowers at him from down the road, now that his skin heals a little more slowly than it used to from solder burns and nicks and pinks, and his stomach is less a washboard and more a comfy if solid bench.” Page 6

“Glass mirrors are green, and make your image look sick and sad.  He doesn’t want to be the person he sees reflected in a glass mirror.” Page 7

“He tries no to reflect on the nature of a life whose high point is an adversarial relationship with an entity possessing the same approximate reasoning and emotional alertness as a milk bottle.” Speaking of a cat on Page 9

“Bastion’s owner is called Edie Banister, and she is very small, and very wiry, and apparently goes back slightly further than the British Museum.” Page 13

“His cheeks are wide and fatty, so that, if Mr. Cummerbund were a deer or a halibut, they would excite pleasurable anticipation in those fond of rich foods.” Page 21.

“He considers himself the wrong side of thirty-five and no closer to being who he wanted to be, if he ever knew who that was.” Page 87

“It makes the world better, just by being. Isn't that wonderful?” Page 95

“It would be very nice if someone would hug him, just for a minute.” Page 178

Beautiful little pieces of art aren't they? Well done Mr. Harkaway.