How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Suddenly I was filled with regret that I'd bought my own plot so prematurely. If I'd known, I could have joined him. Tomorrow. Or the next day. I'd been afraid of being left to the dogs. [...] My son's mother, the girl I fell in love with when I was ten, died five years ago. I expect to join her soon. Tomorrow. Or the next day. Of that I am convinced. (4.51-53)
It is ironic that Leo is so intent on being united with his son after death, since he has avoided all communication with him while alive. But the reunion with his wife he sees as his big reward for a lifetime of patience and fortitude.
Quote #5
He didn't leave the office until midnight, but as he walked home through the cold night he smiled to himself believing the obituary was one of his finest. So often the material he had to work with was thin and paltry, and he had to patch something together with a few superlatives, clichés, and false notes of glory in order to commemorate the life, and bolster a sense of loss over the death. (6.21)
In writing this obituary, and gracefully honoring the achievements of Isaac Babel's life, Litvinoff is effectively writing his own obituary, in which Babel's will be a highlight.
Quote #6
In the days after my heart attack and before I began to write again, all I could think about was dying. [...] I imagined all the ways I could go. Blood clot to the brain. Infarction. Thrombosis. Pneumonia. Grand mal obstruction to the vena cava. I saw myself foaming at the mouth, writhing on the floor. I'd wake up in the night, gripping my throat. And yet. No matter how often I imagined the possible failure of my organs, I found the consequence inconceivable. That it could happen to me. I forced myself to picture the last moments. The penultimate breath. A final sigh. And yet. It was always followed by another. (7.48)
Leo's obsession with dying almost becomes a meditation on death, as practiced by some ascetics and monastics—the idea being that, by constantly thinking about one's inevitable death, he or she will be able to fully experience every waking moment. But what does it say about Leo that he is unable to imagine anything on the other side of that "final sigh"?