They sat and ate dinner across from each other. Esther
noticed how much older Ezra seemed. She was aware of
how his clothes looked loose on him now, although he
still appeared a severe man, precise as a utility in
the way he moved and the way he talked sparingly
at the table. He remained mostly laconic and silent about
the landscape of his thoughts. Esther knew what he was
thinking about. She knew he was thinking about Ben. There
was no longer a closeness between him and Ben; whatever
intimacy had once existed had always been engineered by Esther.
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Paraphrases from the novel Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje.
Michael Ondaatje is the author of The English Patient about which Norman Doidge, M.D. has written.
http://apa.sagepub.com/content/49/1/279.abstract