Gertrude Stein's Ida

Some might criticize Gertrude Stein for her repetition and lack of imagery, but I enjoyed reading Ida. There is something real in the language and I felt I could relate to the paradoxes and life of Ida. Here are some favorite parts:

There are so many ways of earning a living and most of them are failures. She thought it was best to begin with one way which would be most easy to leave. So she tried photography and then she tried just talking. It is wonderful how easy it is to earn a living that way. To be sure sometimes everybody thinks you are starving you never are. Ida never starved

A dog has to have a name and he has to look at you. Sometimes it is kind of bothering to have them look at you.

Everybody began to miss something and it was not a kiss, you bet your life it was not a kiss that anybody began to miss. And yet perhaps it was.