Family and the damage done

"This is reminiscent of all the dutiful grandchildren and great-grandchildren lingering over deathbeds with digital recorders, or else manically pursuing their ancestors through the online genealogy sites at three in the morning, so very eager to reconstitute the lives and thoughts of dead and soon-to-be-dead men, though they may regularly screen the phone calls of their own mothers. I am of that generation. I will do anything for my family except see them." - Zadie Smith en Hanwell Snr.

"'That's a likeable person, that doctor', his father had said with a cough as Gordon walked out in front. 'He knows how to be a doctor. He believes every man must suffer a little damage.'" - Andrew O'Hagan en Gordon.

(Ambos relatos pertenecen a la antología The Book of Other People - El libro de los otros, Salamandra, 2010)