the last book I ever read (David Plante's Difficult Women: A Memoir of Three, excerpt eight)

from Difficult Women: A Memoir of Three (New York Review Books Classics) by David Plante:

The tenor sang, his face raised and his eyes closed, medieval Irish songs, and after he finished the silence was terrible.

In a burst, Sonia gave a history of Ireland from 1169 or some such early date, which went on and on, all jumbled. She involved Israel in Irish history, and her pro-Irish sentiments gave way to pro-Israeli sentiments. She had flipped her lid. Nothing, I thought, could put it back on.