<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; "><font size="2" face="Arial">David Stockhoff <dstockhoff@verizon.net> asked: <br><b></b></font>> Seriously. Has no one read Home Fires?<br></span></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; "><br></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; ">My thirst for <i>Home Fires</i> got quenched in the first chapter while trying to figure out why yellow FAX paper would be so comforting--apparently this is a 'finding' in color psychology, which presumably foreshadows the overlays of color-named characters. </div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:
10pt; "><br></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); ">> Was Skip once someone else?</span><br></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); "><br></span></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; ">Seems like everyone in Home Fires is/was someone else so why not Skip? Question is, who? His initials--S.W.G.--don't help me generate many alternatives, although some sort of "Greene" seems likely. But Skip/overlay might explain why Skip wonders if Chelle will recognize him on her return--despite the Obvious Explanation that Skip will appear different in Chelle's eyes because he has aged. Skip/overlay also fits with Skip's too-easy transformation into agile hero aboard the cruise ship. </div><div style="font-family: arial,
helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; "><br></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; ">> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); ">At the formal dinner, his family reunites. All three have trouble recognizing one another (except when they don't). Two are known to be not entirely who they think they are. Surely the third is also not entirely who he is. </span></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); "><br></span></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; ">I do wonder how any of the Blue family can recognize each other to any degree because they're all replacements/overlays. Still, somehow Chelle recognized her replacement mother at the airport while failing to recognize Skip. Clearly an important clue.</div><div style="font-family: arial,
helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; "><br></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; "></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; "><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><br></font></div></div></div></body></html>