Quote 10
When she'd left, I wandered over to the table where her books remained; they were what I had wanted to see. South by Thunderbird. Byways of Brazil. The Political Mind of South America. And so forth.
These books reveal one of Holly's more underhanded plans. She's educating herself about José's world, perhaps so she can become a part of it. It seems she can make plans when they'll benefit her.
Quote 11
I am always drawn back to places where I have lived, the houses and their neighborhoods (1.1).
These words open the novel and let us know that we'll be spending time in the past. The story is framed around the idea of looking back.
Quote 12
A disquieting loneliness came into my life, but it induced no hunger for friends of longer acquaintance: they seemed now like a salt-free, sugarless diet (4.1).
The narrator's present is more exciting now that Holly's a part of it. His past no longer holds the pull it once did.