How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The woman in the picture is frail and shy and the child is equally shy, unable to lift her head. Only fragments relate me to them now, to this young woman, my mother, and me, her infant daughter. Fragments of fragments. Parts of a house. Segments of stories. (9.43)
Why do you think that Naomi feels so disconnected from her past? What has separated her from this time when she was happy with her mother? Is it possible for her to be connected to that time again?
Quote #8
Everything we have ever done we do again and again in my mind. I rehearse the past faithfully in preparation for her return. (12.11)
This is super cute. For little kids, the past slips away. We guess it's because they don't have a lot of it. But this attitude seems so strange in the context of the novel, where we know an adult Naomi who does everything she can to forget the past.
Quote #9
"Grinning and happy" and all smiles standing around a pile of beets? That is one telling. It's not how it was. (29.27)
By saying "that's one telling," Naomi lets us know that there's more than one version of the past. Her version just happens to disagree with the official version. But does that make it less true?