Masker

"He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense. And when that happens, the happiness is never spontaneous again. It is artificial and, even then, bought at the price of an obstinate estrangement from oneself and one's history... Stoically he suppresses his horror. He learns to live behind a mask. A lifetime experiment in endurance. A performance over a ruin."

(American Pastoral, Philip Roth)