How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
For some reason tonight while I was cleaning out McDonald's, I kept thinking about that first party, which always got me what Mom called "all full of angry energy," so I burned that energy on work and got done even faster than usual. (14.42)
This is another one of those Karl moments we're sure you can relate to. Ever work yourself into being all upset about something that happened in the past and then have to go do something to get rid of all that energy, like work out or listen to metal? That's what's going on here. Karl may have a few happy memories from his past, but most of it is just pent-up rage.
Quote #8
She opened the waffle iron and dumped out two perfect waffles. "How do you know when they're ready?" I asked.
She grinned. "Ancient secret, Tiger Sweetie. You get married very young. You get a waffle iron as a wedding present and you have a husband that you think the sun rises on, and very shortly after a little boy that you think it rises and sets on, and they both love waffles. Then you make about ten thousand burned waffles—and about ten thousand half raw ones—while your husband gamely eats them, and your little boy doesn't care." (19.32-33)
Quote #9
"While he was dying, I was around Dad all the time. He showed me how to fix everything around the house […] all that stuff he'd been good at once, and was good at again now that he wasn't drinking. We'd do stuff all day and he'd add it to that list that—the list that used to be on my wall, and then we'd sit and watch old stupid movies together. He used to do that when he was drunk with Mom, but now he did it with me. He was dying, but life was better than it ever had been. I loved that." (26.104-105)
Dang. This is probably the saddest passage in a book that's packed with a whole lot of sad—the happiest time of Karl's life was when his dad was dying. Really, it seems like that was the closest he came to living anything that resembled a normal life … and losing a parent is about as abnormal as it gets.