How we cite our quotes: (Story.Section.Paragraph) or (Story.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Bohemian Belle, he had called her. She had wanted to be bohemian: to write on a kitchen table perhaps; but not among her children's unwashed cereal bowls. Patchouli was as close as she got. (Fame.25)
Andrea Clement White has a deep sense of dissatisfaction about her life and work. Sure, she's famous, but she feels like something's missing. Like she didn't do the thing she set out to do with her work. And perhaps this is key to her feelings, that she was forced into (or at least accepted) a role that she really didn't dig—like becoming a mother when she really wanted to pour all her energy into her art.
Quote #5
[…] she was battling him with her eyes. DON'T YOU DARE KISS ME! But he closed his froglike eyes, descended his head, his pendulous lips, and kissed the most prominent of her liver spots. Yuck. So many Yucks. (Fame.31)
Andrea Clement White is imagining what will happen when she has to approach the president of her old college to receive her award. And y'all, if you're a woman, you probably know exactly what she's mentally preparing herself for: a hardy defense of her personal space. And it doesn't help that President Nasty Kisser never did anything to encourage her work while she was part of the university. No wonder she wants to come out swinging.
Quote #6
What I've most resented as "the other woman" is being made responsible for the continued contentment and happiness of the wife. (Laurel.28)
Walker pulls zero punches in this work, especially when sharing the thoughts and philosophies of her main characters. The narrator of this story is so blinded by her physical attraction to Laurel that she only sees one thing: personal satisfaction. Her moral universe orbits around that alone. In the end, this callous response to Laurel's wife comes back to bite her when a brain-damaged Laurel won't respect the boundaries of her own marriage—or the fact that she's a mother.