Life as an afterthought

Chapter 5, page 11. These posts won't suddenly end, unlike two consecutive Prime Ministers of some certain obscure Asian country.

            In her world, a person who didn’t know Camus would not be considered to be an intellectual. She was amused by his innocent question, but it also made her aware such education wasn’t necessarily considered to be useful or worthwhile for those who had their focus on their career.

              “Sort of.”

              “What did he write?”

              “‘The Stranger’. And ‘The Plague’. I prefer ‘The Plague’.”

              “What is it about?”

              This gave her another moment of tea tasting and pondering.

              “It’s about a group of people trying to do what’s right. Against all the odds and obstacles.”

              “Doing what’s right shouldn’t be so hard. It’s always the best path to take.”

              “Don’t you think sometimes it’s more difficult than to take an easy path?”

              David stuck out his lower lip, and gave it a thought for a moment. Then he shrugged. “Yeah, I guess, but you’d feel bad about it later if you settle on the easy path.”

              Junko felt they were talking about seemingly the same thing, but were on a different track.               “Have you read ‘The End of the Affair’? It’s not written by a French author though.”

              David frowned, but this time she could see he was faking; he was not remembering anything - he was trying to pretend he of course knew it, but somehow forgot. The kind of expression you’d quickly become familiar with in college.

              “Who wrote that one?”

              “Graham Greene.”

              “Right.”