But the hours pass and Adam feels he is shrinking, wilting. He stays on his own in a corner, in his bubble, like a foreigner who does not speak the same language as the others, does not understand their rituals, their culture.
-- Narration ("A New Year's Eve party")

Importance: This quote describes Adam's personal feelings at the start of the New Year's Eve party, in which he will eventually meet Anita. Adam's sensation of feeling like a foreigner are ironic, given Anita's more pressing concerns of being treated differently, as an actual foreigner. Adam will continue to feel out of place while living in Paris, preferring instead to live in his native rural region. Anita, however, will not get to feel the same sensation of being completely at home in her adulthood.

Each task accomplished to the full (all the housework, potato puree made by hand, the books in alphabetical order, each nursery rhyme) brings her closer...
-- Narration ("A stay-at-home mother")