In Ben Lerner’s novel Leaving the Atocha Station, a character stands on the bank of a river, nervous and scared, as her boyfriend urges her to jump in. She wants nothing more than to walk away, to say no, to follow her instinct. But she succumbs to the pressure and jumps in, only to be swept away by the tide, flailing desperately. She is found soon after downstream, having drowned.
“This just is the world,” Lerner writes. “Things like this happen. One can be as cautious as one wants, can waste one’s life being cautious, but there is no avoiding the reality of death.”
