I like the way Anne Tyler uses the small things to share the way a person thinks, like forty-year-old Micah's conclusion at the start of this telephone conversation:
'Halfway through eating his lunch, he got a customer call.
“Tech Hermit” he said and a woman said, “Hi.* all perkiness and optimism. She was probably still in her twenties.'
That's all it takes to tell you that he's sure the perkiness and the optimism will wear off with time.
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