Rachel asked:

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8 years ago
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Kdz

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Angela

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Barb I am finding this book very hard to get through? Did anyone else find it "dry"?

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Scoho

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[I find a lot of the "answers" to this question baffling. Most of the answers are in the book. Anna's youthful interaction with the boy in the basement foreshadows her sudden "illicit" night in the boat house with Dexter. Most of the time she has tried to be a "good girl." But it's made clear in several places that in her own mind she is bad. Egan also establishes very clearly that Dexter is an extremely attractive man. He was nice to Anna on the beach when she was a child - and the bit about taking off the shoes so that they both have a desire to be free of arbitrary rules. He goes way out of his way to be nice in taking Lydia to the beach. It is explicitly stated in several places that he has never been unfaithful to his wife before the night with Anna. He never tells Anna that he was the one that killed her father. And she knows he's a gangster with deep connections to the NY underworld, so his being able to find her father's body (and I believe, although I don't have the book with me, that he literally says something to the effect of "I can find out") actually implies that he did NOT kill her father. So I find nothing odd about her being very attracted to him. She is also very attracted to Nell - a clearly transgressive character for the time - which implies a definite interesting in and attraction to "breaking the rules." As does her desire to become a diver. She also has her aunt, a "loose woman", and a very close relative, as an example, and all the stories about her aunt's and her mother's friends from the Ziegfeld Follies, as examples of women who did not live by the picket fence values that were pasted over the realities of the era. A lot of the answers to this question of Anna sleeping with Dexter seem to me to be more about the reader's values than Anna's values. In addition to that, the symbolism of Anna's becoming a diver expressed her desire to "go beneath the surface" on a psychological level, and to break the rules - and the chains holding people (Marle, Bascomb, and literally - her father). Her mother running away from the family farm (twice) is also an example of that. I did find the night dive looking for her father's body a little bit magical realism - particularly with the body gone but her being able to find the watch - underwater and in complete darkness - but I have no problem with that. It's a beautifully written and imagined section of the book. To my mind one of the best and most vivid parts. Some other questions - it seemed clear to me that Dexter did not actually order her father's death. It was ordered by the old Mafia guy that Dexter was afraid of, and Dexter hated having to do it (though that may just be my own projection). It's obviously the thing that Dexter fears his boss may still be blaming him for. And the reason the killing was ordered was that Dexter, or his boss, or someone else in their gang, discovered or figured out that Eddy was informing on them to his childhood friend who had become a lawer, and who was now the prosecutor. Eddy's desire to "do right" and be on the right side of the law, mirrors that of Dexter himself, who wants to "go straight" and help with the war effort. As does Anna. All three of them (Dexter, Eddy and Anna) share a lot of the same character traits and conflicts. So it makes perfect sense to me that Anna and Dexter feel a very strong attraction to each other. I don't have time to really edit my own response here, so please forgive any writing glitches of my own. (hide spoiler)]

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Alicia

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Tone

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Sara L

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Laura No! People, especially young people, do not act rationally a great deal of the time. If they did, no one would smoke cigarettes, or sunbathe, or eat sugar, or any number of other harmful behaviors we indulge in all the time. This was a girl who had mostly followed the rules, including caring for a burdensome sibling (not that she didn't love her, but Lydia was still a significant burden), and Egan did a good job of letting her behave a little recklessly. She also had a sexual history, and I think Egan's point was, women can be as sexually motivated as men.

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Marloes D

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Myra Leysorek

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Nina Does anyone know why Eddie Kerrigan was killed? And just to clarify, Dexter's father-in-law was informed about Dexter's infidelity and therefore engaged Mr. Q for his hit?

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Rebecca E I found it very disturbing as well. Enough to make me think a lot about the book after I finished it, and to decide that despite a very interesting protagonist and great writing and research, this twist in the story feels very inappropriate ( especially the resulting pregnancy) and was only as someone else said some kind of sensationalism to advance the plot --makes me think that if in fact I recommend the book, it will be with reservations... and by the way, I am a physician with lots of psychology insight into people because of my profession, and I do not see it here.....

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Stephen Meyers

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TOBI HEEKIN what was the significance of the fog?

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Susan This also seemed odd to me - especially for such a strong independent young woman on her first night out to a Manhattan nightclub. Seemed to be plot device to push the story forward.

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Kate Fitzgerald Agreed. This would have been more believable if previous scenes had shown either of them attracted to the other. It was all very out of character and icky.

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Siobhán It was a bit gross , he didn't remember meeting her as a child but he knew she was close to his daughters age. I think on her side it was excitement and danger and mostly loneliness that led her to want to sleep with him . but as she suspects him of being part of her dad's murder it still doesnt make sense and its ick really

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Julia Jacobs

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Malcolm

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Holly I did too.....I had to attribute it to Anna being naive and young minded.

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Gabriella I think initially Anna thought Dexter would know what happened to her father rather than being the one directly behind his death. She didn’t think he was the one who ordered his death even after he told her her father was dead. If you remember, dexter was involved with the Italian mob while Kerrigan with the Irish and Kerrigan was not even supposed to know anyone from the Italian mob . Nobody knew Kerrigan had been working for dexter, not even Anna who after that single meeting in the beginning of the book could think that was the only meeting her father and dexter had ever had .

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Brenda She didn't know that he was dead at the time, although she assumed it. She also didn't know that Dexter was involved until afterward.

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This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[Does anyone find it weird that Anna had strong feelings for and slept with Dexter even knowing that he was at least somehow connected to her father's "murder?" I found it both odd and disturbing. (hide spoiler)]

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