the last book I ever read (Rabih Alameddine's An Unnecessary Woman, excerpt ten)

from 2014 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine:

I don’t want to give my mother a pedicure. Apart from the fact that I’ve never trimmed anybody else’s nails, I find it—how shall I put it?—demeaning. I am not Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. I don’t wish to be crucified tomorrow. I am not Mary of Bethany. If I dry my mother’s feet with my hair, will they turn blue?

I am not the Magistrate. I am not the Magistrate. I am not the Magistrate.