Daughter of Fortune, by Isabel Allende

Characters
Chile	California
Eliza Sommers – abandoned at birth and taken in by Sommers family, John’s daughter Rose – wrote erotic novels Jeremy John – sailor Mama Fresia – cook for Sommers family Jacob Todd – came to Chile to sell 300 bibles on a bet Tao Chi’en – Eliza’s friend and sage Lin – wife, deceased Karl Bretzner – Rose’s lover at age 16, opera singer Feliciano Rodriguez de Santa Cruz Paulina – wife Joaquin Andieta – poor intellectual, romanced Eliza	Eliza > impersonating as either a Chinese boy or Elias Andieta, Joaquin’s brother Joaquin Andieta > Joaquin Murieta (Mexican) Jacob Todd > Jacob Freemont – reporter and writer Feliciano Rodriguez de Santa Cruz – 1848-1849 went to California to mine gold > Felix Cross Paulina – wife – started steamship line and delivered fresh food from Chile Tao Chi’en Dr. Ebanizer Hobbs – English Azuncena Placeres – prostitute on ship Joe Bonecrusher - madam Babalu the Bad Four “doves”

For Discussion:

Note: Page number are from the paperback edition.

1. Joaquin repeated with Eliza exactly what disgraced his own mother.  Why did he not see this pattern?
2. Did you like the very frequent foreshadowing?  Some examples are:
1. Page 80: “Many years later, standing before a human head preserved in a jar of gin, Eliza would remember that first meeting with Joaquin…”
2. Page 66: “…many years later, on the other side of the world, he [Tao] could still smell candles.”
3. Page 108: “Later, when for years Eliza would follow Joaquin Andieta’s faint trail…”
4. Page 109: “It would be several years before she [Eliza] began to record her Wednesday rendezvous in those pages.”
3. Were you surprised about the changes in the characters once they arrived in California?  For example, both Jacob Todd and Joaquin Andieta seemed to reinvent themselves.
4. In my book group, many members thought Joaquin Andieta had died and that Joaquin Murieta was a different person.  What do you think?
5. Tao Chi’en seemed to be the only person who stayed the same between Chile and California.  Why?
6. Were you surprised to read that Eliza was John’s daughter?
7. Were you surprised to find out that Rose was writing the erotic novels John was selling?
8. On page 228, what did you think of the characterizations of the different nationalities: “Americans were short on patience: they didn’t know how to work as a team and were defeated by greed and a lack of discipline. Mexicans and Chileans knew about mining, but the squandered their earnings.  Oregonians and Russians wasted time fighting and drinking.  The Chinese, on the other hand, got ahead however poor their beginnings because they were frugal…”
9. Discuss the various characters.   What were the positive and negative characteristics of each?  

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