Back at the farm, there's a clay tennis court (immaculately maintained, of course), stables with horses and a perfect circular swimming pool.
He lives in rural New England and has just been up to the islands of Maine with his wife on the same boat that he describes in Lila - perfectly maintained, of course.
It is one that, this week at least, will be difficult for Egan to maintain, although of course it's her job as a novelist to occupy multiple points of view simultaneously.
The developer also claims its the "easiest thing in the world to maintain" – which of course begs the question, why sell the thing?
The marriage that sputtered along, the career that never quite materialized, the friendships that couldn't be maintained and of course, most acutely, our own mortality.
Mainstream science maintains that "of course" a human being is formed from these same physical processes, and many scientists would claim that there is nothing more to say.
The hour-long show felt fresh, original, and right: the syncopation of the dancers, their streamlined shapes, the ferocious struggle to maintain balance, and, of course, the grace, both physical and spiritual.
It's a mess to maintain in itself, of course, but the real problems come when people leave the team.
She inferred that I just dabble in things – that I daren't maintain a course for fear of being criticised.
