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Jewish American Literature A Norton Anthology

A Woman Without a Mask

At 28, Clara Hayes has mastered the art of wearing masks. To her colleagues, she’s the perpetually cheerful graphic designer who never misses a deadline. To her overbearing mother, she’s the dutiful daughter hiding her anxiety behind polished smiles. To the world, she’s a woman who “has it all together”—except she’s crumbling inside. Clara’s life unravels during a corporate presentation where a panic attack strips her façade raw. Humiliated and exhausted, she flees to a quiet coastal town, renting a cottage owned by an eccentric, free-spirited potter named Marisol. There, Clara stumbles upon a dusty journal in the attic, its pages filled with haunting sketches and anonymous confessions from a woman who once lived there decades earlier. The entries mirror Clara’s own suffocating duality: “I paint myself in colors the world approves of, but my soul is a grayscale.” As Clara tentatively befriends Marisol and a reclusive widower, Eli, who runs the town’s crumbling bookstore, she begins confronting the lies she’s told herself for years. Through their unconventional guidance—and the journal’s cryptic wisdom—she starts shedding her masks one by one. But vulnerability comes at a cost: her corporate career teeters, her mother’s disapproval intensifies, and a buried trauma from her teenage years resurfaces, threatening to drown her newfound courage. When Clara’s raw, unfiltered artwork—created in secret—goes viral, she faces a choice: return to the safety of her old illusions or step into the terrifying freedom of living unapologetically. But the journal hides a final secret, linking Clara’s journey to the cottage’s mysterious past, forcing her to question whether true authenticity is a rebellion… or a homecoming.
Daoist5CDTxH · 1.7K Views

I Became Rich by Eating Melons in the Era of Literature (1970s)

  As a melon eater in the new era, Jiang Youtao is like a melon in the melon field. She is there wherever there are melons. So on a thunderstorm night with lightning and rain, she traveled through time and became a poor little girl with the same name in the 1970s.   The poor little girl lost her mother at an early age, and her scumbag father remarried. Not only did she not have enough food to eat and warm clothes to wear, but she also had to do endless housework and endure endless beatings and scolding.   The time when Jiang Youtao traveled through time was the moment when the poor scumbag father forced the original owner to go to the countryside to take over his stepbrother's place in order to have someone to take care of him in his old age and to smash a pot after his death.   Thinking about the environment of hunger and cold in this era, Jiang Youtao's eyes went dark. In the last second before she lost consciousness, a voice appeared in her mind:   [ Ding ~ The melon-eating system is at your service. As long as you complete the melon-eating task, you can exchange it for supplies~~]   In order to have enough food and clothes, Jiang Youtao tried hard, so she ran around in the bloody world that was a fusion of many contemporary literatures, either eating melons or on the way to eat melons.   A certain educated youth from the same educated youth point traveled through time with space supplies, but ended up being a poverty alleviation stepmother;   "The mission is here ~ Watch and mess up the first meeting between the male and female protagonists, and the rewards are: 3 meat buns, 500g beef jerky, 1kg butter melon seeds."   A young wife in the village who had just been married for one day woke up and wanted to divorce her husband and marry her ex-husband's uncle;   "Ding ~ Watch the famous scene of the heroine getting divorced and applaud in public to receive 5kg of rice, 250g of pork, 5 feet of cloth, and 1kg of salt and pepper melon seeds."   The accountant's eldest granddaughter is a well-known lucky bag, while the second granddaughter is a jinx who is plagued by bad luck;   "Ding ~ Watch the jinx star commit suicide and help her, and you will get 5kg of white flour, a chicken drumstick, and 1kg of green tea flavored melon seeds."   Jiang Youtao enjoyed eating melons, and the melon seeds in her hand kept increasing. She had to go out to sell them. Before she knew it, she had made a fortune by selling melon seeds and became a famous roasted food king after the reform and opening up. The courtyard houses in Beijing and the small houses in Haishi were no longer a dream for her. She could go wherever she wanted.   But while she was eating the melon, a figure suddenly appeared beside her. Jiang Youtao reluctantly grabbed a handful of melon seeds and gave them to him: "Big brother, do you want some melon seeds?" ♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤ One-sentence summary: There are too many melons, and the melon-eating crowd is very busy. Theme: Grow in adversity and strive to face the sun. ♤♤♤♤♤ Brief review of the work: This article has positive values, a fast pace, and never lets up on face-slapping stories, satisfying everyone's appetite for gossip. The author's writing is fluent, and he truly depicts the customs and style of the 1970s. The plot is compact, and it is a masterpiece of the era that is worth reading. ♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤ No. Of Chapters: 183 Chapters ♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤ Alternative Name/s: I Became Rich by Eating Melons in 1970s ♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤ Original Author: Rain Falling on the Curtains (Yǔ luò chuāng lián) ♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤ nerdygangster14's Note: This book is not mine. All the content are all credited to original author and the publisher of this book where I have read this book. I just want to share this story to you guys cause this book deserved to be publicized and loved by others. I'm a fan of this book and the author of this book.
nerdygangster14 · 155.8K Views
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