#functional characters

A: Age.

15.

G: Single/taken.

Taken by Matt, Neji, Yamucha, Ikki, Etolie-sama… I mean I am single as hell~! :D

H: Favourite book.

Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren probably.

I mean I like books with alchemy, fantasy etc.

“These people, this pervasive clique, this Establishment to which Winn had attached himself and his family, seemed intent on dividing their community into smaller and smaller fractions, halves of halves, always approaching but never reaching some axis of perfect exclusivity.” Emblematic and quotable, but one of the few points that don’t work in a very good debut novel. This is Dominique, one of the bridesmaids in the wedding that is the occasion for the novel. Dominique is the exotic, the outsider friend who is able to see the rituals of these WASPy characters dispassionately, and as such she becomes a functional character for her author. This then is an example, a point where Dominique’s observation is Shipstead making a point explicitly, made all the worse because there’s no need to frame the judgment explicitly; we already have the information necessary to make this observation ourselves, if not so carefully worded as it is here.