If I am a good enough writer, perhaps I can stop her from crying.
-- Narrator (Pages 1 - 52)

Importance: At the start of the novel, the narrator sets out to create something outside of herself. She hopes that whatever this creation becomes might grant her a defined sense of the world around her. The longer she works on the project, however, the more she realizes her desire to use her writing to communicate with her mother. Because the narrator does not have children, she wonders if she might devote herself to her artwork and to her mother instead. The moment conveys the overarching intent of the narrator's account, and foreshadows the book's healing effects on her and her mother.

Whether I want kids is a secret I keep from myself—it is the greatest secret I keep from myself.
-- Narrator (Pages 1 - 52)

Importance: Although the narrator begins writing her book with thoughts of the soul and of time, her...