"She shut herself away. Some people grieve by holding fast to the love of others, some by rejecting all companionship. Some grieve with tears and some with dry howls. Some grieve like water, some burn. Agnes was pure slate, dark and impenetrable.
Even books didn't help -- she began and discarded them until they threatened her couch in tottering stacks."
- Louise Erdrich, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
