Word: girls
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When an emerald ring that Teddy gave to Clara many years before is stolen, Clara holds her Viennese au pair girl responsible for its return. Clara believes that the servant's boyfriend is the thief...
Bellow gives considerable space to descriptions of Clara's ex-husbands who never appear in the story. These characterizations are entertaining but do little to enhance our understanding of the important characters. One of the main characters, the au pair girl's boyfriend, is never introduced in person. This technique could be effective if it were underscoring a theme of anonymity or detachment. But in many cases, it seems as if Bellow either forgets about the characters or just does not care enough to develop them...
...intense characterization seems useless when Clara admits that she loves the au pair girl and desperately tries to keep her from returning to Vienna. This unexpected twist is completely alien to the character that Bellow so meticulously created. Nothing earlier in the book prepares the reader for such an incongruous revelation. It appears to come from nowhere and undermine any sense of Clara's character which Bellow may have created...
...having a lot of fun," Croteau says. "They've accepted me as one of the players, not as a girl or a guy. Baseball's fun again...
...doesn't discriminate against me or make it especially difficult for me," Croteau says. "That's all I want. I don't want any special favors because I'm a girl...