“ I don’t think I’m alone in having this feeling as a North American: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In fact, we still are clinging to this unbelievable prosperity and safety, good health, and yet the abyss is there, at pretty much every compass point and more and more people are becoming aware of that abyss and the various forms it takes. It’s an odd time to be alive
— Novelist and memoirist Jonathan Franzen.
