How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
It was my brother who made up these moral distinctions, at some point he became obsessed with them, he must have picked them up from the war. There had to be a good kind and a bad kind of everything. (4.33)
The narrator's brother, whom we never meet except in flashbacks, is an interesting counterpoint to the narrator; as a child, she was gentle and interested in drawing bunny rabbits, while he drew pictures of war. Perhaps he is the "evil" to her "good"? In a novel that's obsessed with doubling, his relationship to his sister is interesting.
Quote #5
We begin to climb and my husband catches up with me again, making one of the brief appearances, framed memories he specializes in: crystal clear image enclosed by a blank wall. (5.33)
Early in the book, the narrator's memories of her "ex-husband" intrude frequently on her perceptions of the present. Her failed marriage seems to haunt her in the present, pursuing or "catching" her even when she's off doing, or thinking about, other things.
Quote #6
She said you just had to make an emotional commitment, it was like skiing, you couldn't see in advance what would happen but you had to let go. Let go of what, I wanted to ask her; I was measuring myself against what she was saying. Maybe that was why I failed, because I didn't know what I had to let go of. For me it hadn't been like skiing, it was more like jumping off a cliff. That was the feeling I had all the time I was married; in the air, going down, waiting for the smash at the bottom. (5.40)
The narrator has been asking Anna how she keeps the magic alive with David. Apparently, Anna didn't really have a whole lot of concrete information to give her about how to keep a successful marriage going. This isn't all that surprising, actually, given that we soon learn that Anna and David actually have a pretty crummy marriage.