Three O'Clock in the Morning: A Novel

Anthropologists call it ‘magical thinking.’” “Magical thinking?” “Yes, it’s the mental mechanism by which we see meanings where there aren’t any, imagine non-existent relations of cause and effect and convince ourselves we can influence reality through our thoughts or through symbolic or ritual acts. Magical thinking is the principle behind belief

“Balikwas. It’s a word in Tagalog, the main language of the Philippines. It’s not easy to translate. It means something like: jumping suddenly into another situation and being surprised by it, changing your own point of view, and seeing things you thought you knew in a different way.”

My father’s letter to me ended with a quotation from the great mathematician John von Neumann: “If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.”

“Oh, yes, the joke. An astronomer, a physicist, and a mathematician are traveling across Scotland by train when they see a black sheep in a meadow. The astronomer exclaims, ‘How interesting, in Scotland the sheep are black!’ The physicist looks at him with a hint of disgust. ‘You astronomers are always making arbitrary generalizations. Actually, th

the intelligence you need to really understand law has a very particular structure that’s very similar to that of mathematicians.

The hotel was in an unremarkable modern building, definitely more comfortable than the one we’d been in the first time. It was close to the Canebière, the most famous street in Marseilles, which links the middle-class neighborhood of Réformés to the Vieux Port.

“I read a good phrase about the passing of time,” he said, kicking a plastic bottle. “What was it?” “It got late, very early.” I laughed, although I wasn’t old enough to fully understand the deadly accuracy and truth of that short phrase.

teetotaler.

The calanque of Morgiou, which was bigger than the others, had a marina with boats and a little fishing village.