Adult Braces – Lindy West

I was still awake, sitting in the dark living room. I reached for my adult voice and she was there. “I will leave you if you don’t stop.” “I know,” he said, hanging his head. “I might leave you anyway.” “I know,” he said. “You don’t just get to have everything you want.”

“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry.” I watched the wheels turn in his head as he stared into my eyes. He knew me better than anyone. He peered inside me, and I saw him break. What had he seen? How much strength had I been hiding away?

1kitap1.com/en I’m finding that I really didn’t understand how much open space there is in this country. It feels endless, and living in the city in the twenty-first century, you feel like everything is over. Like we used it all up. But this is all here! Why is it just here? Surely there’s some kind of hope, if all of this is here? But anyway, the thing I keep thinking about is the idea of infinity.

Maybe I’m remembering this wrong, but there’s this idea that inside of a cell the distance between things is so vast. It’s as big as the universe. I mean, isn’t that true? Because you can always cut something in half and half again, and half again and half again. There’s no point where the space between ceases to exist. You can always go half again. You know, infinity’s easy to understand in the opposite direction, relatively.

Space goes out and out and out forever. But the idea of zero? America feels so small sometimes, so crowded and so angry. But then there’s infinite space inside of us, you know? Infinite space for me to be apart from my emotions and infinite space as a refuge. I feel comforted by this space, by the emptiness of it. 1kitap1.com/en Uphill Battle snore.

According to Ahamefule, I snore so violently that it is a federal crime. According to my doctor, I do not have sleep apnea and do not need or qualify for a sleep apnea device. According to my dentist, I have the strongest and beefiest tongue alive, which will not stop planking against my soft palate while I sleep and occluding my airway with its massive lats (this is also the reason I had to get braces—my tongue BULLIED my teeth out of place!!!).

At some point, my snoring—imperceptibly, with no clear announcement —became a major flash point in my marriage.

This book is memoir. It reflects the author’s present recollections of events and dialogue. The author has changed some names and identifying characteristics of people and places. Copyright © 2026 by Lindy West Cover design and illustration by Sara Deck. Cover copyright © 2026 by Hachette Book Group, Inc. Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property.

If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Grand Central Publishing Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104 grandcentralpublishing.com @grandcentralpub First Edition: March 2026 Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a registered trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. Grand Central Publishing books may be purchased in bulk for business, educational, or promotional use. For information, please contact your local bookseller or the Hachette Book Group Special Markets Department at [email protected]. Map by Kadin McGreevy ISBNs: 9780306831836 (hardcover), 9780306831850 (ebook) E3-20260127-JV-NF-ORI 1kitap1.com/en Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraphs Map PART ONE: HOME BODY Alarm A Vroom of One’s Own Adult Braces Mid Wife Crisis Hypothetical Crystal Cave of Wonders BAAA PART TWO: COLEMAN STOVE Jante’s Girl Monsters On Showering Addicted to What the Pepperoni Stick Did Voice Memos Hwy 194, Colfax, Washington Two Hikes SR 272, Palouse, Washington On the Edge US-89, Livingston, Montana Tore My Soul Open on a Lube Rack Mary Tyler More-to-Love US-18, Douglas, Wyoming We Live in a Society, Bitch!

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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• Title: –
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