Adulthood, Almost
Yes, this is what I thought adulthood would be, a kind of long indian summer, a state of tranquility, a calm incuriousness, with nothing left of the barely bearable raw immediacy of childhood, all the things solved that had puzzled me when I was small, all the mysteries settled, all questions answered, all the moments dripping away, unnoticed almost, drip by golden drip, towards the final, almost unnoticed, quietus. (94)
John Banville, The Sea (2005), Picador.
