People appeared enormously foolish to him. He understood that they were only animated cavities full of jelly and strings and liquids. He had seen the insides of jaggedly ripped-open dead people. He knew for instance, what brains looked like spilling out of somebody's head. In the context of this, much of what went on in normal life seemed wholly and disturbingly ridiculous.


David Guterson (born May 4, 1956) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, and essayist. Ishmael Chambers in the 1995 novel Snow Falling On Cedars