Together forever (Metaphor)
Lotto longed for something “wordless and potent.” He wanted to “wear her.” The young man wanted to enjoy “her warmth forever.” People in his life “had fallen away from him one by one like dominoes.” Lotto didn’t want her to abandon him too. He imagined a lifetime together; he wanted “this” for “eternity.” Marriage “meant forever.”
Reflection (Metaphor)
What can be more beautiful than an extremely warm autumn night? Only spending the night in question near an ocean. The four “troubled kids” liked to spend their free time on the beach, for it was a perfect place for their not always harmless fun. That night especially beautiful. “Moon rose blowsily, pissing white on water.” Its reflection was one of not numerous sources of light on the beach. That glimmering was fascinatingly beautiful.
Pregnancy (Metaphor)
Antoinette stopped looking like a beautiful and slim mermaid. Her second pregnancy and grief over her husband’s death destroyed the remains of her beauty. The woman was huge and as “placid as a sea cow.” Even her emotions “went underground.” She watched everything “from a tremendous remove.” It was impossible not to notice that she “grew plum, plumper.” Finally, “she split.” Baby Rachel was born.
Hot (Simile)
The party was in full swing. School friends, college friends, ex-lovers and many others came to congratulate Lotto and Mathilde on buying their own family nest. The apartment was as “hot as hell,” for there were too many people. However, Lotto was extremely happy, because “all his college friends were together again” and nothing else mattered. He even “took a moment to watch, standing with a beer in the doorway.”
Dummy (Simile)
Luanne was “trouble.” Mathilde came home most days “with stories about how she tried to seduce their boss, some gross bulgy-eyed man with vaudeville eyebrows named Ariel.” Luanne was ambitious and dangerous. However, Mathilde and she were friends, so everyone was ready to overlook her flaws. That Halloween party she was “ogling” Arnie who was “dumb as a dead bulb”. In spite of the fact that Arnie “was a neuroscience major in college,” the majority of Lotto’s friends assumed that he wasn’t smart enough.
A hue (Simile)
Lotto was a failure, since he hadn’t got any promising positions since his graduation. As the result of it, they didn’t have enough money to renovate the flat completely. However, neither Lotto nor Mathilde was ready to give up. The pair painted the walls in “an attempt to shake things up.” At least it wasn’t “as bright as a mouthful of Lemonheads anymore.” Even Rachel found the color interesting. It was “the darkest blue” she had ever seen.
