The book jumps ahead to show the characters in the future. Did this change how you feel about the characters

The book frequently jumps ahead in time to show what's become of the characters being discussed. Did this influence how you feel about these characters?

I thought it was a tidy and ingenious way of giving us information that expanded a character without the weight of having to keep track of so many threads. It gave insight and reward simultaneously. That was a standout feature of the novel for me that I'd planned to comment on in the discussion even if the question had not been asked.

I thought that was a wonderful way to make the characters multi dimensional and answer the questions that we built up in our own minds. I enjoyed it very much and thought the author handled it beautifully. I did see the characters differently after seeing what happened next.

The timeline at the beginning of each chapter was so easy to follow--it was important to catch the date or the reader could get mightly confused! The timeline referenced the state of circumstances during the 10 years the story covered and naturally the change in the characters was apparent.

I really liked the way this was done as the novel could have been much more complex and difficult to read if it hadn't bee written this way. I thought it gave the characters a great deal of depth. In books where characters are not followed in to the future, I sometimes find myself filling in the blanks.

I found this writing technique to be very valuable. It certainly helped flesh out the characters. It gave hope for a future for many of the characters. It allowed the reader to glimpse another dimension of the life and times of the character not directly covered by the story line of the novel. It allowed the reader to just sort of absorb these details without getting bogged down or sidetracked from the main narrative. It was a very subtle technique and skillfully done. I really appreciate the skill of this author.

I thought the technique was inspired and gave an added dimension to the characters. To learn of the fates of various characters while you are reading their story made their stories all the more poignant. No one escapes their fate.

I actually enjoyed this part and I am not usually a fan of this style. I think it changed feelings of several of the characters, but not all. Gave us a real understanding into each character, and gave us a discussion base to ask whether an action was a past characteristic, a present characteristic, or would always have been part of their character.