Haoyi’s answer to “The endings of parts 2 and 3 struck me as over-the-top/ ham-fisted and unsatisfying but I probably …” > Likes and Comments
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Thanks for your helpful response. I had trouble understanding why the identity of the drama teacher is changed in the third section. It made me think the whole book was about transforming real events into fiction with three related #metoo stories.
No worries - glad it was helpful :)
I think the third section is meant to be reality from Claire's view, while the first part is the text of Sarah's fictionalised novel and the second part is also real with Karen telling her version of their shared past, but she continues to use the fake names for everyone that Sarah gave them in the novel for some reason.
I agree with your take, Holly, but I found Claire's recognition -- after the fact -- of the school secretary's recognition of her to be unrealistic. I did not believe that a school secretary would, 25 years later, recognize the child of a former student. Sarah did not even know that "Karen" had had a baby when she was away at the Christian school, but I guess we are to assume that Lord/Kingsley did, and therefore that the school secretary did?
Andrea, I do find it believable a school secretary would recognize "Karen" in Claire's face. I find most schools are rather tight-knit communities. (Where everyone knows everyone's gossip.) True, Sarah did not know that Karen had been pregnant, but surely there was conversation in the school office/administration about a student who left a rigorous high school arts program for the first half of her junior year. Surely the office administration would guess at why Karen took an absence and remember that student in particular. (Though of course who knows how many female students had to take leaves for pregnancies.) If I were Claire I would have stormed out of that office too. That or yelled at Velma (was that the office assistant's name?) How many people stayed quiet about and permitted the rampant adult-teenager sexual activity at that school? I'm in my mid-30s and this abuse of adult power continues. This story holds us all to account for the way we view and frame our stories.
The question is, are we totally sure Claire is "Karen"'s daughter? Her birth mother's data says "mother's mother attended secretarial school, mother's father vocational school". At first glance this matches Karen's receptionist mother and her handyman father, but Sarah's mother also worked as a secretary. I think the author deliberately makes this vague to present the option that Claire might as well be "Sarah"'s daughter.
There's also a very-easy-to-miss line in Karen's section where she says something along the lines of the office ladies at her high school caring for her better than her mother did. I only noticed this re-reading it, but that for me planted the Velva recognition of Claire as Karen's child, and made it more believable. It strikes me as distinctly possible that the administrative staff would be aware of Karen's situation (returning from "bible school", where she'd been for 6-9 months) and what "bible school" meant, without the teaching staff and students being aware. I do think Martin and Kingsley/Lord are the same person, and that that means Lord kissed his daughter, which is weird.
But he wouldn't know it was his daughter, was my point, as the secretarial staff would know about the pregnancy, but no one else at the school... this is my theory.
I was wondering if the staff secretary was supposed to be one of the characters we met before. As someone else commented, it doesn't seem believable that she would recognize the daughter of a student she hadn't seen in 20 years. And the secretary never appeared earlier in the book. So I found the ending unsatisfying and unnecessarily obscure, as well.
"Karen" mentioned that the school's staff took better care of her than her own mother did, so I do think it's possible one of them would remember her well especially given the special circumstances of her two term absence. I'd like to point out that although they knew she was pregnant, they most likely did not know who the father was. They may well have thought it was a boy her own age.
Also, just think how big the news would have been in the 90's when "Karen" shot Martin at a play directed by another former student. Everyone at the school would have seen pictures of her on TV, etc, and remembered her.
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Jay
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Jun 03, 2019 10:36AM
Thanks for your helpful response. I had trouble understanding why the identity of the drama teacher is changed in the third section. It made me think the whole book was about transforming real events into fiction with three related #metoo stories.
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No worries - glad it was helpful :)I think the third section is meant to be reality from Claire's view, while the first part is the text of Sarah's fictionalised novel and the second part is also real with Karen telling her version of their shared past, but she continues to use the fake names for everyone that Sarah gave them in the novel for some reason.
I agree with your take, Holly, but I found Claire's recognition -- after the fact -- of the school secretary's recognition of her to be unrealistic. I did not believe that a school secretary would, 25 years later, recognize the child of a former student. Sarah did not even know that "Karen" had had a baby when she was away at the Christian school, but I guess we are to assume that Lord/Kingsley did, and therefore that the school secretary did?
Andrea, I do find it believable a school secretary would recognize "Karen" in Claire's face. I find most schools are rather tight-knit communities. (Where everyone knows everyone's gossip.) True, Sarah did not know that Karen had been pregnant, but surely there was conversation in the school office/administration about a student who left a rigorous high school arts program for the first half of her junior year. Surely the office administration would guess at why Karen took an absence and remember that student in particular. (Though of course who knows how many female students had to take leaves for pregnancies.) If I were Claire I would have stormed out of that office too. That or yelled at Velma (was that the office assistant's name?) How many people stayed quiet about and permitted the rampant adult-teenager sexual activity at that school? I'm in my mid-30s and this abuse of adult power continues. This story holds us all to account for the way we view and frame our stories.
The question is, are we totally sure Claire is "Karen"'s daughter? Her birth mother's data says "mother's mother attended secretarial school, mother's father vocational school". At first glance this matches Karen's receptionist mother and her handyman father, but Sarah's mother also worked as a secretary. I think the author deliberately makes this vague to present the option that Claire might as well be "Sarah"'s daughter.
There's also a very-easy-to-miss line in Karen's section where she says something along the lines of the office ladies at her high school caring for her better than her mother did. I only noticed this re-reading it, but that for me planted the Velva recognition of Claire as Karen's child, and made it more believable. It strikes me as distinctly possible that the administrative staff would be aware of Karen's situation (returning from "bible school", where she'd been for 6-9 months) and what "bible school" meant, without the teaching staff and students being aware. I do think Martin and Kingsley/Lord are the same person, and that that means Lord kissed his daughter, which is weird.
But he wouldn't know it was his daughter, was my point, as the secretarial staff would know about the pregnancy, but no one else at the school... this is my theory.
I was wondering if the staff secretary was supposed to be one of the characters we met before. As someone else commented, it doesn't seem believable that she would recognize the daughter of a student she hadn't seen in 20 years. And the secretary never appeared earlier in the book. So I found the ending unsatisfying and unnecessarily obscure, as well.
"Karen" mentioned that the school's staff took better care of her than her own mother did, so I do think it's possible one of them would remember her well especially given the special circumstances of her two term absence. I'd like to point out that although they knew she was pregnant, they most likely did not know who the father was. They may well have thought it was a boy her own age.
Also, just think how big the news would have been in the 90's when "Karen" shot Martin at a play directed by another former student. Everyone at the school would have seen pictures of her on TV, etc, and remembered her.
