Erdrich traces several passions through several generations. Anger at rejection, guilt, and longing appear to be fated for many of her characters. Just as Yeats in "Among School Children" questions how to tell the dancer from the dance, Erdrich's first-person omniscient narrator, at the end of the novel, questions: Did these occurrences have a paradigm in the settlement of old scores and pains and betrayals that went back in time? Or are we working out the minor details of a strictly random pattern? Who is beading us? Who is setting flower upon flower and cut-glass vine? Who are you and who am I, the beader or the bit of colored glass sewn onto the fabric of earth?" As with Yeats, the question is unanswered, although threads of connection tie many characters together.
Female twins abound.....
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