" Do you remember his argument about fiction?" Annie asked. "About narrative? Another big theory."

"I don't. Probably I wasn't at that party."

"Just, that we read fiction because it suggests that life has a shape, and we feel ... consoled, I think he said, by that notion. Consoled to think that life isn't just one damned thing after another. That it has sequence and consequences." She smiled at Edith. "I think it was more or less the idea that fictional narrative made life seem to matter, that it pushed away the meaninglessness of death. "

― Sue Miller , Monogamy