How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I can't believe I'm on this road again, twisting along past the lake where the white birches are dying, the disease is spreading up from the south, and I notice they now have sea-planes for hire. (1.1)
These opening lines to the novel give us the sense that it's been a looong time since the narrator has been home, given that she "can't believe" she's there.
Quote #2
I thought of them as living in some other time, going about their own concerns closed safe behind a wall as translucent as jello, mammoths frozen in a glacier. All I would have to do was come back when I was ready but I kept putting it off, there would be too many explanations. (1.8)
Apparently this is how the narrator thought of her parents after she left—frozen in time and unable to change. The fact that they've both moved on—her mother is dead and her father is missing (and likely dead)—is a bit traumatizing for her.
Quote #3
When we're back in the car I say as though defending myself, "Those weren't here before." Anna's head swivels round, my voice must sound odd. "Before what?" she says. (1.37-38)
The narrator is feeling defensive here for some reason. The others have been gazing admiringly at a family of stuffed moose dressed up in people-clothes. Perhaps the narrator believes that the others would have expected her to mention these curiosities, and that's why she feels the need to specify that they are new? In any case, Anna's question about "Before what?" is well taken—what is the big reference point (or reference points) for the narrator, in terms of marking her time both in and away from her hometown?