« I searched for something in his face, anything his mask of contentment might betray, but there was nothing. He was a genius in that sense - a master. His was the best mask I’d ever seen. (...) It was not my stony, flat mask of death, nor was it the stiff, cheerful posturing popular among housewives and other sad and deranged women. It was not the cutthroat bad boy mask set to ward off potential threats with the promise of violence and hot rage. Neither was it the lily-sweet bashfulness of men who pretend they’re so weak, so sensitive, they would crumble if anyone ever challenged them even a little. Lee’s look of calm contentment was an odd mask, peculiar in its falseness as it hardly looked fake at all. »
Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen