Call me an optomist. On page 244 Anna receives a pair of pearl earrings from her father for her 17th birthday. She takes them to a jeweler and she's told they are worthless fakes. I think she should have gotten a second opinion. Why would he bother to send a pair of cheap earrings all the way from Shanghai? Her Dad may be an unstable jerk, but I don't think he's cheap. Also he's sending a gift to impress his daughter. Why wrap up trash? And think of the postage?
If I ever meet Bo Caldwell I'll ask her if she thinks the earrings are real or fake.
I find I'm more interested in the father character over Anna and the mother. Evil is always more interesting to read about than good. When I studied Milton's "Paradise Lost" at UC Berkeley we talked a lot about how Milton makes the devil so interesting, likable, "fun to be with" as opposed to God who is no fun at all. Hard to make "good" appealing.
Imagine if Anna's father was a nice guy. Left Shanghai on time so he could live with his family in sunny Pasadena. Not much of a story. More like a 1960's TV sitcom a la Father Knows Best. Besides, he has to be "bad" so he can change, abandon his old ways, appreciate what he has and go on to be a good person. Redemption.
The only insightful, intersting thing we hear her mother say is on page 237 after she and Anna go to a restaurant in Shanghai and see Joseph with another woman. Anna comments the woman is not pretty. Through her mother says, "Your father loves beautiful women. The fact she's not a beauty tells me he must truly care about her."
So does this mean her mother thinks of herself as just another shallow, beauty queen. We don't get to know a whole bunch about what drives Eve. Sad.
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