There are worse things than a family trying to be decent and encouraging toward its brilliant son, but, for Beckett, what he endured at Cooldrinagh — the family home, with its summerhouse, servants, and tennis court — was purgatorial.
"You can't have this little cul de sac, all of these little kids that have nothing to do, because they're going to get together and they say: 'Right, you ain't got no money, I ain't got no money, we ain't got nowhere to go, no one gives a crap about us, so why are we sitting here trying to be decent people when that's not getting us nowhere?' "In this day and age you have to have money.
He was trying to be decent and graceful, give her whatever she wanted--the house, every fucking thing.
We are increasing the hours at the office, online at home, squeezing in quality time for our kids, our partners, trying to be decent daughters and daughters in law.
The closest I've seen to a female version of this archetype is Temperance Brennan from Kathy Reich's "Bones" series, but even though she has the genius for detail, the brilliance of deduction, and the logically dictated disconnect from the emotions of society, she at least tries to be decent human being.
But then, when it's over, the exhausted but shocked man - the wreck left - has to try to be the decent fellow the world expects.
"I always felt like, well, even if I couldn't live up to him exactly, at least I could, you know, try to be halfway decent".
"What the code comes down to is try to be a decent person... and there are three parts - bravery, honesty and kindness.
If you try to be a decent person, they take it for weakness.
