My Favorite Quotes from Anne Enright's 'The Gathering' - Set #1

I am almost finished reading Anne Enright's The Gathering, and although the subject matter is depressing, I surprisingly find many amusing quotes that describe the lives of the characters in the book.

I won't enthuse too much about the plot so that you will find time to read the book.  All I can say now is there is sexual abuse in it which leads, as always, to themost catastrophic consequence - death.

Anyhow, here's the first set of my favorite quotes from the book -

1.  "Emily needs to dismantle the world before she can put it back together again" - Emily here, is the young daughter of one of the narrators of the book.  The narrator is the sister of the one who gets sexually abused.

2.  "I have no place left to live but in my own heart." - One of the narrator's brothers just left the priesthood, and they don't tell their mother, because it would break her heart.  This is what the guy, Ernest, says to the narrator, after he leaves the priesthood.

3.  "I was living my life in inverted commas.  I could pick up my keys and go 'home' where I could 'have sex' with my 'husband' just like lots of other people did.  This is what I had been doing for years.  And I don't seem to mind the inverted commas, or even notice that I was living in them, until my brother died."  - Very powerful stuff!  Do you live your life in inverted commas?
3. "Kitty sleeps with lots of men, and she loves each of them and they are all married.  Is that a sexual orientation?  It should be - the little bitch. She only shags the impossible dream."  - Love this line!  I was laughing after I read it.  Kitty is one of the sisters of the narrator.

4.  "Tom leaves the property supplement out on the kitchen table, with rings and ticks around derelict bits of the inner city.  He underlines the words, "In need of refurbishment'.  I think he means me." - Tom is the husband of the narrator.  Their marriage is going through that phase where, everything is in "inverted commas". 

5.  "My brother has a trained heart; compassion is a muscle for him." - Here, she's talking again of her brother, the ex-priest, who just knows what to say at the right time.