The Flamethrowers

“Later I told Ronnie Fontaine. I figured it was something Ronnie would find especially funny but he didn’t laugh. He said, ‘Yeah, see. That’s the thing about freedom.’ I said, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘Nobody wants it.’”

This quote highlights another quixotic concept explored throughout the novel: freedom. Chapter 2 deals heavily with various types or expressions of freedom. This quote reveals an oxymoron that Kushner will continue to navigate—namely, that people think they want freedom but once they have it they don’t know how best to use it and end up abusing it.

“Nevada was a tone, a light, a deadness that was part of me. But it was different to come back here now. I’d left. I was here not because I was stuck here, but to do something. To do it and then return to New York.”

Much of Reno’s internal narrative is connected to the aesthetics and emotions of a place. She believes she has to live in New York City in order to work as an artist, but she yearns for the landscapes of Nevada for her art. She is therefore of both worlds, but one much more so than the other. That Nevada can be a tone that represents deadness and light demonstrates how complex her relationship is with her home. Kushner implies that only in moving away and returning by choice can Reno appreciate her home state for the beauty it holds.

 “We were in separate realities, fast and slow. There is no fixed reality, only objects in contrast.”

This quote exemplifies Reno’s attraction to and talent for landscape art, which relies on an artist’s ability to see and denote those objects in contrast. This talent is also explored through the structure of this novel, in which two different characters in two different time periods are striving for the same thing: To go so fast that the world is a blur, and in that blur find clarity. This quote and this concept again highlight Kushner’s reliance on juxtapositions.

“Watching its smug glide, Valera was in pain, but he felt a strange exhilaration around the edges of his pain. ‘The world is unknown to me,’ he said out loud. ‘It is unknown.’”

Here, Kushner reveals the seduction of the coming-of-age story. She suggests that the more one learns about the world, the more they realize how little they know. Kushner advocates for this stance and uses both Valera and Reno as narrative examples of what happens when a person embraces the unknown.

“My apartment was about as blank and empty as my new life, with its layers upon layers of white paint, like a plaster death mask of the two rooms, giving them an ancient urban feeling, and I didn’t want to mute that effect with furniture and clutter.”

The imagery of Reno’s apartment juxtaposes the rich landscapes of color she escaped from. Despite her articulation of those landscapes through art, that Reno appreciates the bareness of her new life speaks to her youthful endeavor to completely change all that she is familiar with. The physicality of the apartment mirrors Reno’s new, lonely life full of opportunities to morph into something Reno doesn’t know how to imagine.

“It took me a moment to realize he was joking. As I did, I felt that he and his friends were unraveling any sense of order I was trying to build in my new life, and yet, strangely, I also felt that he and his friends were possibly my only chance to ravel my new life into something.”

This quote highlights the chaotic nature of chapter 4—a chaos that Reno dives into. This characterizes her thirst for adventure, her desire to be unmoored, and the ways she embraces the disorder of the world. It also supports the book’s coming-of-age narrative, in which characters must throw themselves into the chaotic unknown to find themselves.

“I had said I didn’t want to know his name and it wasn’t a lie. I had wanted to pass over names and go right to the deeper thing.”

Kushner holds back from naming many of her main characters. This adds to the chaotic nature of her story, and this quote in particular highlights Reno’s desire to be without strings. Names root people more concretely in their worlds; names are an identity. Without names, Kushner reveals people for what they are instead of what others project them to be.

“Women were trapped in time. This was why men had to keep going younger. Marie’s daughter, or someone else’s. Because men, Valera understood, moved at a different velocity. And once they felt this, their velocity, all they had to do was release themselves from the artifice of time. Break free of it to see that it had never held them to begin with.”

This quote emphasizes the traditional view of a thirst for speed as a male-centric desire. Valera grows up in a different time period than Reno, but Kushner leads her reader to understand that the idea of speed, the ability to drive fast, and the goal of having the rest of the world melt around you are concepts and skills that many people don’t believe women are capable of. Kushner’s novel subverts this notion, as Reno is the central narrator and a woman more than capable of racing against men and appreciating the intoxication of speed. This quote brings up one of Kushner’s sub-themes which questions sexism in society and relationships.

“I wanted to be someplace warm, and I resented this presumption that I would be willing. I saw how easy everything was for Sandro. I felt it, all at once. That he simply found a girl he liked and incorporated her. And because I was attracted to him, his charisma, his looks, and his knowledge, if I didn’t form an attachment it would be my loss.”

Chapter 6 introduces the origin story of Reno’s relationship with Sandro, but Kushner also immediately uses several moments to foreshadow the future destructive nature of this relationship. That Reno is only seeing the glaring warning signs of Sandro’s self-centered behavior in hindsight emphasizes the topic of youth and the theme of coming into your own as an adult. Upon meeting Sandro, despite the attractive quality of his looks and attentions, the reader is led to believe right away that Sandro is not right for Reno, thereby foreshadowing Reno’s character development away from him.

“But I was grafted to be Sandro now. We were a project, a becoming, a set of plans. He was invested in what I’d be. But that did not erase an attraction I’d had for Ronnie, on a long night when I never learned his name.”

This quote exemplifies Reno’s predicament with her relationship to Sandro. On the one hand, Reno is fulfilled by Sandro’s attention and love. On the other hand, she can’t shake off her attraction to Ronnie, Sandro’s best friend. This attraction to Ronnie highlights Reno’s desire for amazing things to happen, rather than Sandro’s desire for amazing things to be created. With Sandro, Reno was systematically pursued and wooed. With Ronnie, her attraction was instant and manic. Kushner’s use of the word “graft” here is key; like a living tissue that is transplanted surgically, Reno has been carefully inserted into Sandro’s life. But grafting oneself to another person is not true love.

“As if I had some duty—to Sandro—that required me to be more assertive, to entertain his friends. So-and-so talked nonstop, I’d say, and he’d laugh. They all talked nonstop. That is, if you didn’t intervene. They were accustomed to being interrupted. Whoever was hungriest to speak, spoke. I wasn’t hungry in that same way. I was hungry to listen. Sandro said I was his little green-eyed cat at these parties. A cat studying mice, he said, and I said it was more like a cat among dogs, half-terrified.”

In this quote, Kushner implies several conflicts between Sandro and Reno. First, Kushner shows that Reno is not comfortable in Sandro’s world, foreshadowing conflict in their relationship. Secondly, Kushner implies that not only is Reno uncomfortable, but she also dislikes Sandro’s social circle of interesting but difficult people. Third, Kushner reveals to the reader that while Sandro finds pleasure in Reno’s observations of his friends, he doesn’t see that Reno is ill at ease with them.

“So many women on so many nights, flirting with him and ending up in his lap. Ronnie, who always had lovers and never girlfriends and did not kiss and tell. It could have been for this reason alone that I still felt something for him. And who could say that one reason was more valid than another? Unavailability was a quality, too.”

Reno observes Ronnie from an intimate distance. She had once been that young anonymous girl on his lap, and now she is his friend with a secret attraction to him. Part of this attraction, revealed here, is that Ronnie is aloof and too cool for the structure of her relationship with Sandro. This implies that Reno, due either to youth or inherent personality, craves more wildness like Ronnie, instead of her settled relationship with Sandro. Furthermore, although Reno’s narration demonstrates that she does judge Ronnie’s treatment of relationships and women, she doesn’t want to be too critical of something she is aware she desires.

“It seemed important to convey that I understood. Isn’t that what intimacy so often is? Supposing you understand, conveying that you do, because you feel in theory that you could understand, and you want to, and yet secretly you don’t? […] I had the vague feeling that contenting meant approving of his act of violence and I did not approve, but then again this was simply sex, not approval or forgiveness, and I’d already decided I wasn’t going to reciprocate.”

The issues presented in this quote are quite important, even though Reno tries to brush them off. The first issue, that of the definition of intimacy, emphasizes Reno’s youth and her reliance on Sandro to maneuver what intimacy is in their specific relationship. But Reno is clearly unsatisfied with this type of intimacy as she can sense that Sandro is getting away with something, even though Reno can’t decide what it is that she’s allowing him to get away with. Secondly, this issue of sex as transactional instead of reciprocal is clearly at odds with the way Reno wants to express desire through her body. The more Kushner explores the relationship between Sandro and Reno, the clearer it becomes to the reader that this relationship is fraught with discrepancies.

“The impulse to shoot someone in the hand. To hide a gun in your boot. What was it? I felt free of that. Like I could float up to the ceiling, unweighted by the burden of the male ego. I would float on up and not be afraid.”

This quote breathes life into the novel’s undertones of feminism. As aggressively male and powerful as the men around Reno are, Reno can see that she is the one with the most power and freedom. She doesn’t feel fear the way that Sandro does; she embraces the world for what it is, instead of how she wants to morph it.

“Minimalism is a language, and even having gone to art school, I barely spoke it myself. I knew the basic idea, that the objects were not meant to refer to anything but what they were, there in the room. Except that this was not really true, because they referred to a discourse that artists such as Sandro wrote long essays about, and if you didn’t know the discourse, you couldn’t take them for what they were, or were meant to be. You were simply confused.”

Chapter 14 shows the reader a new path to understanding Sandro. Although it can be easy to see him as overly privileged and controlling of Reno, Sandro is also complicated. He actively wants a separation from his family, and Reno can see why in clearer terms once she meets his family. Sandro pursues an art form that few people can understand, so it becomes more apparent to the reader why his friends are so eccentric. Here, Kushner implies that Reno is not a natural part of his friend circle or his very different family in part because Reno doesn’t understand Sandro—nor does he understand her. Reno is misunderstood by the new adults floating around her life, but so is Sandro.

“If she had been nicer to me I would have wanted to know Talia Valera. It was always that way with women I found threatening, that there were some unfulfilled longing to be friends. I didn’t quite know why she threatened me. She was full of life and verve and a refreshing bluntness, and yet I wanted her contained instead of celebrated for these qualities I secretly admired.”

This moment is crucial to the development of Reno’s character. The reader has seen how Reno is surrounded almost exclusively by men. She doesn’t have many female friends, with Giddle being the only exception. Feeling intimidated by Talia may signify a desire for strong female friendships, but Reno doesn’t know how to navigate and advocate for those friendships. This quote is also a major moment of foreshadowing because, as it turns out, Reno is subconsciously cognizant of the sparks between Talia and Sandro. Reno is intimidated by what Talia represents to her life: a challenge. Kushner uses a parallel structure between this moment of foreshadowing and the moment in which Reno finds Talia and Sandro kissing, with the word “contained.” In this quote, Kushner uses “contain” as something Reno wants to do to Talia, but in the last moments of the chapter Kushner uses “contain” as something Sandro must do to Reno to keep her away from Talia.

“All of his attention to me, physically, was focused on my body and his praise of it, his gratitude for its proportions. Given that Talia’s body was awkward, there must have been desire there. What he liked was not for me to see or know.”

This quote highlights a tricky dynamic at stake in Kushner’s tone of feminism. Reno’s confusion when she sees Talia and Sandro kissing is rooted in her comparison of women. Reno is shocked by Sandro’s desire for Talia because Reno is so physically different than Talia. This helps Reno understand that Sandro’s desire for Reno is more conscious and image-based, and that her beauty is not a match against Sandro’s inherent desire for Talia—a desire that is not based only on physicality. Reno realizes that the foundation of her relationship with Sandro was nothing more than performative, but here Kushner also highlights the competition society drives between women for the male gaze.

“The people in that apartment had been kind to me the previous night. There was something about them I could only describe as human. Humane. They didn’t ask who I was, why I was there, where I came from, and what I did.”

This quote emphasizes a paradox in Reno’s characterization. Reno wants community; she doesn’t like to be alone, and she appreciates the company of others. But she also prefers when people don’t ask her questions about herself, her past, and her future. Yet Reno cannot expect to make genuine connections without sharing a more vulnerable side. This cycle seems to continue for Reno, existing as a challenge to her independent spirit.

“It repeated in my head as more and more people packed into the enormous square. The ‘we’ of it: people lost in the vast thickets of the world. People lost among people, since there wasn’t anything else. The world was people, which made the prospect of two finding each other more desolate. It was like finding a lover, pure chance and missed connections. It was finding a lover.”

Although this quote is important because it highlights Reno’s newfound wonder with the world, it also highlights Kushner’s message about the vastness of the world. In New York, Reno’s life was contained within a specific social circle. But in Rome, she discovers how large and diverse human life can be. This helps Kushner promote her ideas about the importance of being a part of the world—an active participant rather than a passive observer.

“She was on her way down, or up, or down, and not looking for friends. She wasn’t shopping for experience. She was trying to survive. I was the one shopping for experience. I who remembered her and everything she had said to me, and that was enough. It was enough that I remembered her.”

In observing Nadine in her new, happier life, Reno has a major moment of self-realization. Whereas Nadine needed this circle of people to survive, Reno is driven by desire, not need. Reno is hungry for adventure, not stability. She realizes now, though, that it’s not how long the adventure lasts that’s important. Instead, what’s crucial to a well-rounded experience is the memory, however imperfect, of who, where, what, and how.

“I was alone again, like when I first arrived in New York, but it was a different alone. Things had happened. I’d walked under the plane trees with Sandro in the gardens of the Villa Valera in Bellagio. I’d tried to chew inedible bread under a fresco of drowning popes. I knew what it felt like to be teargassed. I’d been drawn in by three different men, Ronnie, Sandro, Gianni, and one woman, Giddle, and it would seem that I knew nothing about any of them. I owned a motorcycle. I rode it all over town. It wasn’t just transportation, it was an experience.”

By Chapter 18, Reno is alone again. This parallel ending does not, however, mean that Reno is unchanged. Now, Reno is alone but can appreciate that isolation more than when she first moved to New York. She has had two years of incredible life-altering adventures. She has met people who have shaken up her life. Even though the experiences were not without challenges and heartbreak, here Kushner implies that Reno is thankful for the chaotic unfolding of her last couple of years. This quote emphasizes Kushner’s coming-of-age theme.

“A blend of good and bad characterized all humans, and to pretend to sort that out was an insult to human complexity. But at the same time, Sandro understood that people only tended to allow their own contradictions, and not those of others. It was okay to be murky to yourself, to know you weren’t an angel, but other people had to be more cleanly divided into good and bad.”

Chapter 19, omnisciently narrated about Sandro, reveals new layers to a character who, up until now, could easily be seen as an antagonist to the main character, Reno. This quote embodies the philosophy that Sandro carries into his eclectic adult life. To Sandro, self-exploration and experience are more important than the unconditional inclusion of other people. The soul is a complicated issue for Sandro, and this quote highlights his general distrust of others and his need to categorize other people to save himself. Here, Kushner shows that Sandro is not bad; he is just informed by different difficult experiences than Reno.

“He wasn’t worth looking up to. Talia understood this, Talia, who didn’t look to anyone for anything. She was unafraid. She didn’t need to please others. She didn’t love herself or anyone else. She knew better than that. She was an evolved human, a Shrapnel. And he understood it. He liked people who didn’t give a shit but you can’t surround yourself with that, it was only for sometimes.”

This quote reveals a major element to Sandro’s characterization: He doesn’t like himself very much. Sandro appreciates his life but finds flaws in himself that others, like Reno, might not see. Sandro’s attraction to Talia is based on her attitude towards him because Talia can see Sandro for who he thinks he truly is. Sandro finds weakness in loving others, so here Kushner establishes that he and Reno were never going to work out. Sandro lives a far lonelier life than Reno can imagine.