Memory's got nothing to do with the old and grey and faraway gone. Memory's the muscle sting of now.
-- Michael (Prologue)

Importance: Positioning this quote at the very beginning of the book sets up the theme of history's continuity and traumatic persistence. It also provides a justification for the novel's form. Flashbacks carry as much narrative weight as the present because memory is constantly present. By calling it "the muscle sting," the author also suggests the trauma that both Michael and his mother feel constantly after Francis's death.

We lived in Scar-bro, a suburb that had mushroomed up and yellowed, browned, and blackened into life.
-- Michael (chapter 1)

Importance: Scarborough is a neighborhood full of immigrants, mostly people of color. By describing it this way, Michael provides a sense of the importance of that racial other-ness in the neighborhood's identity. By making these color adjectives into verbs, Michael is also suggesting a dynamic action, that the arrival...