“ 'Can't really say?' Nick said, and heard, as he sometimes did, his own father's note of evasive sympathy. It was how his family sidled round its various crises; nothing was named, and you never knew for sure if the tone was subtly comprehensive, or just a form of cowardice.”

Alan Hollinghurst

Alan Hollinghurst - “ 'Can't really say?' Nick said, and...” 1

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