He has seemed to need fiction as a kind of relentless performative report, which is why, in recent years, the great novels (Sabbath's Theater, American Pastoral) have shared space with much weaker works, and why he has been so productive; the fiction at once urgent and a bit scrappy, as necessary as art and as helpless as life.
And as a result, I was completely helpless, my life literally in the hands of strangers.
Russia is a helpless giant, and life for its people gets worse every day.
"We suddenly recognized that while netizens may be all powerful on the Internet, they are very much helpless in real life," said Mr. Zhai, the team leader.
"I have never felt so helpless in my life than when I had each son in war.
They tried to keep me calm and told me he was OK, but I have never felt so helpless in my life.
But, do we need to encourage people like Donald Trump to strike fear into immigrants' hearts by threatening to suffocate them by pinching off their homeward remittances like a villainous doctor in a terror novel would pinch off the breathing tube of a helpless victim on life support?
The fourth story involves a hapless kid working in a factory who takes a job at a high end hotel/brothel, falls in love with a female coworker and generally feels helpless as his life narrows down to a miserable job on yet another factory floor.
Pessimism helps me adopt an indifferent stance when things feel overwhelmingly helpless, like a life-preserver in an endless steel-grey ocean.
I will never forget the kindness of those people when I was going through the most helpless time in my life.
It's time you were told the unadorned truth, otherwise you'll stay a helpless child all your life, forever reliant on your mother.
