"I didn't leave Belgium much during that season. I spent the time observing the people of the Ardennes and participating in their activities, and then learning to write what I'd seen in such a way that as little of it as possible would be squandered."
The narrator of "Hiding Places" appears to be a stand-in for Vasquez himself. He's an author, hoping to use his cultural experiences abroad as fodder for his next significant writings. He comes to adopt their habits and to participate with them in local affairs in order to understand the nuances of Ardennes better, like a deliberate insider.
"Abandoning a country was child's play. Swapping colors and not life. Rootlessness had no color, however."
Gazing at a map on the wall, the protagonist of "Life on Grimsey Island" muses about the different colors which the countries are assigned. They are just puzzle pieces on a wall. On his quest to disown France, the narrator feels how profoundly easy it is to physical leave a place, but to belong somewhere else is a true challenge.
"You are not made to be with me. In fact, you're not made to be with anybody."
The profound solopsism with which Vasquez portrays his male protagonists is matched only by the occasional flare of anger in the moment. A jilted lover tells her man this declaration when she reaches her wits' end. She accuses the man of being so self-absorbed that he no longer has space in his mind for other people and doesn't deserve to be with them.
"Waiting for someone implies their footsteps before they arrive at the door . . . but a phone call changes the world in an instant: it's not there, and then it is."
Vasquez depicts communication breakdown in the twenty-first century by illustrating the suddenness of information. A phone call is instantaneous compared to an expected visit. While anticipation may insulate a person's expectations, it also offers one the ability to process and prepare. The lovers in Vasquez' stories all seem to suffer from the immediacy of their communication.
