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Michel
Frank is Natalie’s husband, whom she meets when she goes to university. He has a mixed-race background, the son of the wealthy white Elena and a Trinidadian train guard. Frank’s unusual background makes him immediately attractive to Natalie, who has always been fascinated by (and sometimes envious of) people with a higher social status than her own. But while Natalie succeeds in winning over Frank and his mother, she soon learns that being with Frank involves compromises, as she changes herself to fit into his world. By the end of the novel, Natalie has given up much of her idealism and embraced Frank’s worldview—that the difference between rich and poor people is hard work. This makes Frank a hypocritical character, since of course he didn’t work hard at all (and did poorly in school) and yet he remains wealthy because of his family privilege.
Francesco “Frank” De Angelis Quotes in NW
The NW quotes below are all either spoken by Francesco “Frank” De Angelis or refer to Francesco “Frank” De Angelis. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Visitation: Chapter 16
Quotes
— Why do you treat me like an idiot all the time?
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Host
Quotes
Perhaps sex isn’t of the body at all. Perhaps it is a function of language. The gestures themselves are limited—there are only so many places for so many things to go—and Rodney was in no way deficient technically. He was silent. Whereas all Frank’s silly, uncontrolled, unselfconscious, embarrassing storytelling found its purpose here, in a bedroom.
Natalie Blake had completely forgotten what it was like to be poor. It was a language she’d stopped being able to speak, or even to understand.
Crossing: Hornsey Lane
Quotes
Here nothing less than a break—a sudden and total rupture—would do. She could see the act perfectly clearly, it appeared before her like an object in her hand—and then the wind shook the trees once more and her feet touched the pavement. The act remained just that: an act, a prospect, always possible. Someone would surely soon come to this bridge and claim it, both the possibility and the act itself, as they had been doing with grim regularity ever since the bridge was built. But right at this moment there was no one left to do it.
Visitation
Quotes
In her daughter’s eyes Natalie saw her own celebrated will reflected back at her, at twice the intensity.
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Francesco “Frank” De Angelis Quotes in NW
The NW quotes below are all either spoken by Francesco “Frank” De Angelis or refer to Francesco “Frank” De Angelis. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Visitation: Chapter 16
Quotes
— Why do you treat me like an idiot all the time?
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Host
Quotes
Perhaps sex isn’t of the body at all. Perhaps it is a function of language. The gestures themselves are limited—there are only so many places for so many things to go—and Rodney was in no way deficient technically. He was silent. Whereas all Frank’s silly, uncontrolled, unselfconscious, embarrassing storytelling found its purpose here, in a bedroom.
Natalie Blake had completely forgotten what it was like to be poor. It was a language she’d stopped being able to speak, or even to understand.
Crossing: Hornsey Lane
Quotes
Here nothing less than a break—a sudden and total rupture—would do. She could see the act perfectly clearly, it appeared before her like an object in her hand—and then the wind shook the trees once more and her feet touched the pavement. The act remained just that: an act, a prospect, always possible. Someone would surely soon come to this bridge and claim it, both the possibility and the act itself, as they had been doing with grim regularity ever since the bridge was built. But right at this moment there was no one left to do it.
Visitation
Quotes
In her daughter’s eyes Natalie saw her own celebrated will reflected back at her, at twice the intensity.
