"Old. I'm almost forty, probably as close now to Mrs. Masicotte's age as I am to the age of my parents as they sat on that lawn, laughing and blowing dandelion puffs at me, smoking their shared Pall Mall cigarettes and things Mrs. Masicotte was the answer to their future—that the black-and-white Emerson television set was a gift free and clear of the strings that would begin our family's unraveling".
Chap. 1, p. 4

"I was on the brown plaid sofa, watching TV and Scotch-taping my bangs to my forehead because Jeanette said that keeps them from drying frizzy. Across the room on a Barcalounger, my mother was having her nervous breakdown". Chap. 3, p. 35

"'You can be two things if you're a woman, Dolores. Betty Crocker or a floozy'". Chap. 4, p. 55

"Mr. Pucci had seen me through eight smoking suspensions, $230 worth of unreturned library books, sixty-seven days absent...