How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph) or (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #10
How delightful to be at the heart of such a good-willed reunion. […] We ranged in age from three months to [Leon's] eighty-nine years. And what a din of voices, from gruff to shrill, as the waiters came round with more champagne and lemonade. The aging children of distant cousins greeted me like long-lost friends. (4.34)
The end of the novel has the happy, cheerful family scenes that the beginning mostly lacks. The family here is a cheerful, bustling affair, rather than a big clump of resentment and jealousy and frustration. Maybe the younger generation of Tallises is just happier, or maybe families look less tense when you're looking at them from the perspective of a seventy-seven-year-old great-aunt than when you look at them from the perspective of a thirteen-year-old.