In the woman's view, the best thing about a resort town such as this was that you did whatever everybody else did, without thinking, moving like a pack. For a fatherless family, as theirs now was, this collective aspect was the perfect camouflage."
-- Narrator (The Dialectic)

Importance: The woman is vacationing with her children in Sopot and appreciating the anonymity afforded to her there, where no one knows that her former partner, the children's father, has abandoned the family and emigrated to America. She is not subjected to the looks of pity she faces at home where everyone knows her personal business. Try as she might to have a positive attitude, the woman remains bitter about this situation and angry at her partner for leaving.

A dream was a house your brain made without your permission, precisely to preserve memories and experiences and wayward impulses for all eternity, even the dead ones that only...
-- Monica (Sentimental Education)