How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
They said the City makes you lonely, but since I'd been trained by the best woodsman ever, loneliness was a thing couldn't get near me. (5.33)
Yeah, okay, Joe—we believe you. Loneliness isn't a thing that can get near you, but you're so sad that Violet has gone off her rocker and is playing with dolls that you break down and find an eighteen-year-old girl to fool around with. Hmm… And you were a nice guy before your wife went nuts? Sounds like loneliness to us.
Quote #8
The city man looked faint, but Honor and Hunter had not only watched the common and counted-on birthings farm people see, but had tugged and twisted newborns from all sorts of canals. (7.13)
Country living is big on the birds and the bees and the birth canals. Golden Gray is all fancy-pants and Baltimore-bred, so he's never seen a birth, but in the country, births are more common than harvests. This quote underlines with bright red ink the fact that country = fertility and City = infertility.
Quote #9
Joe is wondering about all this on an icy day in January. He is a long way from Virginia, and even longer from Eden. As he puts on his coat and cap he can practically feel Victory at his side when he sets out, armed, to find Dorcas. (7.38)
It's harder to be further from Virginia, metaphorically if not geographically, than New York City. At least for Joe. Virginia was sleeping in trees and working with the spoils of the earth and chasing his runaway mother, Wild. New York, on the other hand, is about selling Cleopatra beauty products and chasing his wayward ex-girlfriend, Dorcas. Hmm… Maybe New York isn't so far removed from Virginia after all?