Surfacing Memory Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

Nothing is the same, I don't know the way any more. (1.29)

Coming back to the region where she grew up, the narrator sees a lot that is familiar… and a lot that is different. For example, the road she used to use to get home is blocked, which leaves her completely at a loss to figure out how to get there on her own.

Quote #2

What I'm remembering are the visits our mother was obliged to pay Madame while our father was visiting Paul. (2.24)

As the narrator moves through her old stomping grounds, memories of her childhood intrude and bleed into her observations. Here, she remembers her mother's awkward encounters with "Madame," Paul's wife, as she's having her own in the present day.

Quote #3

But Madame doesn't mention it, she lifts another cube of sugar from the tray by her side and he intrudes, across from me, a coffee shop, not city but roadside, on the way to or from somewhere, some goal or encounter. (2.42)

As the narrator is sitting there with Madame, suddenly she remembers sitting with some dude in a coffee shop (the time or exact place of this memory is unspecified). This is one of a handful of times the narrator refers to this dude (or rather memories of him) sneaking into her thoughts like a cat burglar. Memory is tricky that way, especially in this novel.