Two questions for Ms. King

[Lenore]

I'm feeling a little shy about posting these -- I'm a lurker, not a poster -- but I've decided I really want my questions answered. So, if you don't mind and it's not too intrusive:

1) Is the name of the sinister Aldous Carstairs of Touchstone a wink and nod to the much more upright Mr. Carstairs of the CIA in the “Mrs. Pollifax” stories of Dorothy Gilman? Or just a coincidence?

2) A more serious question: As a Jew, I began by asking myself why Mary Russell is Jewish. Generally speaking, I think recurring series protagonists are, on some level, alter egos of the author. It seemed an odd choice for you, since you aren’t Jewish. Then one day I awoke rather suddenly to the fairly obvious observation that you’re not gay, either, and Kate Martinelli is. So I began to ask myself, what do these two characters have in common (aside from being detectives, of course)? I decided that, for Mary Russell in early 20th century England (a somewhat anti-Semitic society) and for Kate Martinelli in the modern San Francisco police department, each is an “outsider” – someone accepted by their own close associates, but something of an undesirable (or, at least, an object of suspicion) in the larger society. Being an outsider sharpens the perceptions, both in putting one on the alert for the “enemy” and in raising empathy for other disadvantaged characters. Am I on the right track, or barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks for your patience with my questions -- and, of course, thanks for the books!

[laurierking]

1) Is the name of the sinister Aldous Carstairs of Touchstone a wink and nod to the much more upright Mr. Carstairs of the CIA in the “Mrs. Pollifax” stories of Dorothy Gilman? Or just a coincidence?

2) A more serious question: As a Jew, I began by asking myself why Mary Russell is Jewish. Generally speaking, I think recurring series protagonists are, on some level, alter egos of the author. It seemed an odd choice for you, since you aren’t Jewish. Then one day I awoke rather suddenly to the fairly obvious observation that you’re not gay, either, and Kate Martinelli is. So I began to ask myself, what do these two characters have in common (aside from being detectives, of course)? I decided that, for Mary Russell in early 20th century England (a somewhat anti-Semitic society) and for Kate Martinelli in the modern San Francisco police department, each is an “outsider” – someone accepted by their own close associates, but something of an undesirable (or, at least, an object of suspicion) in the larger society. Being an outsider sharpens the perceptions, both in putting one on the alert for the “enemy” and in raising empathy for other disadvantaged characters. Am I on the right track, or barking up the wrong tree?


1. No, it's not a deliberate reference, it's been forever since I read those books so I'd forgotten. Although one never knows what the back of one's mind bases its decisions on.

2. I'm sure you're right, the wish to present outsiders is part of the reason why those two characters are respectively Jewish and gay. No doubt other reasons as well, but again, that's the back of my mind choosing, not the front.

[LaideeMarjorie]

2) A more serious question: As a Jew, I began by asking myself why Mary Russell is Jewish. Generally speaking, I think recurring series protagonists are, on some level, alter egos of the author. It seemed an odd choice for you, since you aren’t Jewish. Then one day I awoke rather suddenly to the fairly obvious observation that you’re not gay, either, and Kate Martinelli is. So I began to ask myself, what do these two characters have in common (aside from being detectives, of course)? I decided that, for Mary Russell in early 20th century England (a somewhat anti-Semitic society) and for Kate Martinelli in the modern San Francisco police department, each is an “outsider” – someone accepted by their own close associates, but something of an undesirable (or, at least, an object of suspicion) in the larger society. Being an outsider sharpens the perceptions, both in putting one on the alert for the “enemy” and in raising empathy for other disadvantaged characters. Am I on the right track, or barking up the wrong tree?

Lenore,

You make a very interesting point! I would take it even further and say that Ms. King makes it even more complex by having her two leading characters with a foot in both worlds in some ways and not completely home in either.

Kate is a lesbian in a city that is known for it's acceptance of a gay "lifestyle", but she spends her time in a world (police) where not being "one of the boys" still exerts a great deal of pressure and suspicion.

Mary is Jewish, however she comes from a heritage that is both Jewish and gentile as well as American and British. Again she stands astride two worlds where she probably does not often feel fully at ease in either place. Which makes it all the more wonderful that she finds and forges relationships where she is accepted as she is for what she is. She IS Mary Russell. And that is what attracts me so much to her story and her strength of character.

--Marjorie

[Pat Floyd]

Lenore and Marjorie,
You are making very perceptive and helpful observations. I hadn't been thoughtful enough to engage in such analysis.

[Jennifer]

I don't know if it's that Mary is an outsider as much as it is she's a keen observer. The reason I say this is that it is much more common to be an outsider than I first supposed and people deal with it in much different ways. For example, I am an outsider to my mid-western neighbors. Sounds silly and trivial? Not if you are living it. My next-door neighbor is from China. She's an outsider to this tight little community too. We'd both feel like we were walking on the moon if we tried to live in the artists' colony here, where having life-sized mobiles and sculpture gardens in the front yard is de rigeur! Mary is special, absolutely no doubt about it but I think it goes way beyond straddling the cultures because people all around me are doing it all the time, as a matter of course. And they were doing it in her day as well. Her mother, no one has mentioned this, but her mother impresses me as someone who had much to do with Mary's keeness being honed and developed. It was always there, surely, but it takes developing and encouraging and from what we learned about her mother, I see that she was capable of doing that.
Jennifer

[Pat Floyd]

Her mother, no one has mentioned this, but her mother impresses me as someone who had much to do with Mary's keeness being honed and developed. It was always there, surely, but it takes developing and encouraging and from what we learned about her mother, I see that she was capable of doing that. Jennifer

Jennifer, you make excellent points. Particularly in LOCK we see Mary's mother as someone who, though she may be sad or distressed, is superbly comfortable with herself in whatever circumstance she finds herself: in a marriage that drew parental disapproval, in being a Jewish minority, in friendship with Chinese servants whom she regarded as equals, in camping out after the earthquake, in response to an action of her husband that I won't define lest it be a spoiler. Such people may know they're outsiders, but they don't feel like outsiders. Mary seems to have caught that attitude to life.

[Jennifer]

Particularly in LOCK we see Mary's mother as someone who, though she may be sad or distressed, is superbly comfortable with herself in whatever circumstance she finds herself: in a marriage that drew parental disapproval, in being a Jewish minority, in friendship with Chinese servants whom she regarded as equals, in camping out after the earthquake... Such people may know they're outsiders, but they don't feel like outsiders. Mary seems to have caught that attitude to life.
Mary's mother modeled as well as taught Mary how do deal with all sorts of disparate situations. She taught Mary to love scholarship, to accept people, and she must have seen Mary's keen intelligence early and worked with that gift. I am glad we got to go back and see a little of this woman. It gives a great insight into Mary and if I may be so bold, what kind of parent she just might be...
Jennifer