How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He himself has no son. His childhood was spent in a family of women. As his mother, aunts, sisters fell away, they were replaced in due course by mistresses, wives, a daughter. The company of women made of him a lover of women and, to an extent, a womanizer. (1.34)
Interestingly, being raised in the company of women hasn't done much to help David understand them. Sure, being constantly surrounded by women has made David love them, but rather than making him a feminist, he's gravitated towards the opposite pole.
Quote #2
He sits down on the bed, draws her to him. In his arms she begins to sob miserably. Despite all, he feels a tingling of desire. "There, there," he whispers, trying to comfort her. "Tell me what is wrong." Almost he says, "Tell Daddy what is wrong." (3.82)
Whoa, hold up there, David. Here, we have this weird crossover between David's sexual instincts and his fatherly instincts. In spite of his interest in Melanie's beauty and youthfulness, we also see David acting as a father figure towards her (in his daughter's old room, no less!).
Quote #3
From the day his daughter was born he has felt for her nothing but the most spontaneous, most unstinting love. Impossible she has been unaware of it. Has it been too much, that love? Has she found it a burden? Has it pressed down on her? Has she given it a darker reading? (9.11)
On the flip side to David's strange fatherly feelings towards Melanie, we get this passage about his relationship with Lucy. Though the narrator doesn't say it outright, but again the line between familial and sexual love is blurred – hence the "darker reading" that David wonders about.
Quote #4
What does he really want for Lucy? Not that she should be forever a child, forever innocent, forever his—certainly not that. But he is a father, that is his fate, and as a father grows older he turns more and more—it cannot be helped—toward his daughter. She becomes his second salvation, the bride of his youth reborn. (10.58)
Throughout the novel, David has to struggle with what his relationship with Lucy actually is. Since she's a grownup now, the dynamic between father and daughter is no longer the same as it was when Lucy was a kid. As a man getting on in years, David has to come to depend on Lucy in different ways than he's used to.
Quote #5
As a child Lucy had been quiet and self-effacing, observing him but never, as far as he knew, judging him. Now, in her middle twenties, she has begun to separate. The dogs, the gardening, the astrology books, the asexual clothes: in each he recognizes a statement of independence, considered, purposeful. The turn away from men too. Making her own life. Coming out of his shadow. Good! He approves! (11.10)
In this moment, we don't just learn more about Lucy – we also get some very telling information about the dynamic between her and David.
Quote #6
Though he strains to hear, he can make out no sound from the house. Yet if his child were calling, however mutely, surely he would hear! (11.80)
Even as someone who seems to have had a somewhat distant relationship from Lucy in the past, David's fatherly instincts kick into high gear in this moment. It seems a given that if Lucy needed her dad, he would be able to hear her – no matter how far away she was or how silently she called for him.
Quote #7
Not her father's little girl, not any longer. (12.62)
We see here that David feels that Lucy has slipped through his fingers. But don't we get the idea that that happened a long time ago? Is it just David who realizes it now?
Quote #8
"Lucy and I are not getting on," he says. "Nothing remarkable in that, I suppose. Parents and children aren't made to live together. Under normal circumstances I would have moved out by now, gone back to Cape Town. But I can't leave Lucy alone on the farm. She isn't safe. I am trying to persuade her to hand over the operation to Petrus and take a break. But she won't listen to me." (16.42)
David seems to be as frustrated with Lucy, who is in her mid-twenties, as many parents tend to be with their teenagers. Is he only worried about Lucy's safety, or is he also concerned that he's lost his sway over her actions?
Quote #9
You have to let go of your children. David. You can't watch over Lucy for ever. (16.43)
In many ways, Bev knows Lucy better than David does. More than that, in moments of advice-giving like this one, we get the impression that she plays both a surrogate mother to Lucy and a surrogate wife to David.
Quote #10
Who would have guessed, when his child was born, that in time he would come crawling to her asking to be taken in? (20.34)
This quote illuminates several things: we see that Lucy can stand just fine on her own two feet without David, and that this altered dynamic isn't something that David was prepared for. At the same time, it makes us reflect back on David's concerns about age in a new way: older age changes one's relationship with one's children, and it's not an easy shift to grow used to.
Quote #11
Then one day there emerges from the dark another voice, one he has not heard before, has not counted on hearing. From the words he knows it belongs to Byron's daughter Allegra; but from where inside him does it come? Why have you left me? Come and fetch me! calls Allegra. So hot so hot, so hot! she complains in a rhythm of her own that cuts insistently across the voices of the lovers. (20.73)
Just as Coetzee makes Byron is a metaphor for David, so does Allegra stand in for Lucy. Here we get a sample of David's feelings of guilt over having left Lucy alone during her rape. For a more detailed explanation, check out the "Symbolism" section.
Quote #12
"Because I couldn't face one of your eruptions, David, I can't run my life according to whether or not you like what I do. Not any more. You behave as if everything I do is part of the story of your life. You are the main character, I am a minor character who doesn't make an appearance until halfway through. Well, contrary to what you think, people are not divided into major and minor." (22.29)
Here, we get Lucy candidly venting some of her frustrations with David to his face. Here's a girl who has lived in her dad's shadow for a long time and who is ready to make her own life without him.
Quote #13
"Your child? Now he is your child, this Pollux?"
"Yes. He is a child. He is my family, my people."
So that is it. No more lies. My people. As naked an answer as he could wish. Well, Lucy is his people. (22.69-71)
Despite the fact that we have two very different people – Petrus and David – in a moment of conflict right here, note how they are similar with respect to the way they both want to look out for the interests of their family members. The circumstances might be different, but their instincts are the same.