elstaffe’s Reviews > The Snake Has All the Lines > Status Update

"Having made this mistake, she ought to have the simple decency to remain indoors in her bathrobe, where she will not depress the entire community with the spectacle of her bulky contours." (167)

"And [my mother] combines a Job-like patience in the face of the mysterious ways of the Almighty with a flash of Irish rebellion which will bring her to say—and I'm sure she speaks for many of us—'Jean, what I am really looking for is a blessing that's not in disguise.'" (144)

"What unhinges me completely and leads to so many insults from passing male drivers is when three of them try to lie on the floor, shouting, 'We've got our eyes shut, say when we're passing the post office! Are we near Futterman's? Did we turn onto Beach?' Someday one of them is going to open his eyes and ask, 'And why did you drive into this deep water, Mommy?' And Mommy will tell them." (133-134)

"CAN THIS ROMANCE BE SAVED?
Lolita and Humbert Consult a Marriage Counselor

It was a mistake to read Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and the Ladies' Home Journal on the same evening. The total effect was a little confusing." (78)

"When I see my boys dropping wet seaweed on somebody's sound-asleep face or spilling sand into an open jar of cold cream, I simply shout, 'Little boyl Stop that immediately or I will ask your father to spank you!' This stops him without exactly revealing my true identity as the parent of the delinquent." (22)