How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"See? You were the last thing on her mind." (9.53)
Maybe Joe was the last thing on Dorcas's mind because, well, he shot her. Just maybe. But Felice tells Joe that Dorcas was thinking about him until the very end in a great act of charity: She knows this will make Joe feel peace and help preserve his memories of Dorcas as ever-loving.
Quote #8
It never occurred to me that they were thinking other thoughts, feeling other feelings, putting their lives together in ways I never dreamed of. Like Joe. To this moment I'm not sure what his tears were really for, but I do know they were for more than Dorcas. (10.5)
Dorcas was Joe's version of hitting fifty and buying a red convertible. The narrator/Felice realizes at the end of the novel, when all good epiphanies must occur, that Dorcas was more than a pretty face for Joe. She was a great number of things: a chance at renewed youth, a younger and saner version of Violet, a daughter never born, and a mother never connected with. Man. Maybe Joe should have just gotten a convertible.
Quote #9
A lot of the time, though, they stay at home figuring things out, telling each other those little personal stories they like to hear again and again… (10.12)
In perhaps the most surprising plot twist of the novel, Joe and Violet end up fairly happily ever after. These two weirdoes were meant for each other. One of the ways in which they are compatible is their love of remembering, and in repeating their memories to each other. Sure, everyone likes to look backward, but Violet and Joe have it elevated to an art.