How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"What is this about?" I ask Dad one night, picking up volume two. It is so long I cannot imagine that there is an end that can be described as either happy or true.
"A lost world," he says. "A life just out of reach."
This is fitting, since I think his finishing it will remain forever out of reach. I would venture that its length and difficulty are why he is reading it in the first place. But of course I don't know if that is, in fact, true. Dad learned French, Latin, and Italian in college, but he taught himself German. Was it to read this book? Why not read a three-volume book in French? I leave the study. Suppose he answered all my questions. I still wouldn't discover what the quality is of his mind's heartbeat. Which is what I am really asking with my questions about his reading habits. (17.44-46)
Dad's dogged determination to read a book that is so difficult is fascinating. Is he doing it to prove a point? To stimulate his brain and somehow avoid the stagnancy of parenthood? Is it a form of punishment? Ellen's right in thinking that if she could just figure out his motivations, she would know her father much better.