Interesting Passages

As an avid reader, I enjoy clever turns-of-phrase and interesting,
well-written passages in books, articles and essays. From time to
time I'll share some of my favorites here. These include works of
fiction and non-fiction.

The Torrid Twenties were at hand, and many, many Americans, either ignoring Prohibition or actually taking up drink in defiant resentment of the Volstead Act's intrustion into their private lives, had beaten their swords into cocktail shakers and were dancing deeper and deeper into the ostrich hole of isolation (Delivered from Evil, by Robert Leckie; Harper Perennial Press, 1987).