Question 5. Fathering

[Ashley]

How is Jack’s experience of fatherhood different from Mabel’s experience of motherhood? How are their experiences similar? When Garrett asks Jack’s permission to marry Faina, he thinks: “It hadn’t happened instantly, the way he had always imagined, with a gush of blood and a piercing wail, but instead fatherhood had arrived quietly, gradually, over the course of years, and he had been blind to it. And now, just as he finally understood that a daughter had been flitting in and out of his life, now he was being asked to let her go” (p. 332).

[Carol]

I really liked Jack's character in the book. I liked Garrett too and the relationship he, his family and Jack and Mabel had. They seemed all very close. When Faina came into the picture, Garrett was very fascinated with her, and learned more and more about her. Jack went up to her hover in the mountain with her grains, flowers, things to eat. She was an amazing hunter as was Garrett. They were both very good at setting traps. During this time the kids fell in love, and when Garrett asked Jack for her hand in marriage, the time had slipped so quickly that it felt like the right thing to do.