It wasn’t that Alice and her father weren’t having honest conversations—they were, and better conversations than many people had with their parents, to be sure—but they were conversations that skimmed happily over the surface, like a perfect flat rock.
-- Narrator (chapter 13)

Importance: At the start of the novel, Alice is unhappy when it comes to her relationship with her father. Since Leonard’s eccentricity sets him apart from stereotypical fathers, Alice often feels as though their relationship lacks depth or a sense of security. It takes Alice many trips back in time to realize that their bond was deep all along, even if they did not always vocalize their love for one another.

If her parents had stayed married, they would have been miserable. Surely this was what they had discussed at the time—which misery was the most important, which sadness was the heaviest? Was it the lack...
-- Narrator (chapter 8)