Foul Lady Fortune

“Her cells had been altered to knit together against any wound; they had not been altered to withstand a whole system collapse. Working with the only weapon that could kill her was a way of reminding herself that she was not immortal, no matter what the Nationalists said.”

Rosalind makes an odd choice of a favored murder weapon. It implies a level of self-loathing and potential self-destruction. She literally wears the means to kill herself in her hairpins. At one point in the novel, she scratches herself with a pin and almost dies until the correct antidote is administered. Lady Fortune works daily with chemicals that could kill her. Perhaps she unconsciously hopes that one day they will.

“This is an age of consumption, time speeding by on American flavors and jazz, French literature and a sea of lost cosmopolitan love. If you are not careful, you will be swallowed.”

This comment is made by an anonymous man in a bar. He’s about to become the chemical poisoner’s next victim. The random observation indicates that even people on the street can’t help but notice the deterioration of their own native culture. Long before the Japanese arrived, the Chinese were already suffering from an identity crisis because of their attachment to Western luxuries.

“She was stuck in this state, forever locked into the worst part of her life on a cellular level. It wasn’t only her body that didn’t age; her whole soul felt halted too.”

Throughout the novel, Rosalind’s problem is that she hopes to attain redemption by altering the past. This quote shows the degree to which this fixation on the past isn’t merely a psychological problem but a physical one. She will always appear to be the age at which she helped Dimitri nearly destroy Shanghai.

“A city reborn is a city traumatized. It remembers its past, every second that it took to get to this point. It sees the former version of itself and knows that it has changed, its boots no longer fitting, its hats no longer comfortable.”

This comment alludes to the destruction that Shanghai suffered in the fictional duology that told the story of Roma and Juliette. Rosalind and Dimitri were the principal players who brought the city to its knees. That story relied heavily on science fiction elements in bringing about Shanghai’s downfall. The above quote, while referencing a fictional catastrophe, is also an accurate historical foreshadowing of China during World War II.

“‘We’re powerless against their press and papers saying otherwise.’ Dao Feng finally set down his pen. ‘Do you see how easy it is? Who are we to insist that we are innocent when accused? If they say that we blew up the tracks, then we blew up the tracks.’”

Dao Feng is explaining to Rosalind how media can affect public perception of fact. While the train derailment was probably caused by Japanese agents, it’s used to cast blame on the Nationalists. The political world of the novel isn’t based on fact but on appearances. His comment is all the more telling since the narrative later reveals that Dao Feng is a double agent.

“She almost wished she could be like everyone else. How freeing must it be to grow attached in the blink of an eye and detach oneself just as fast. But Rosalind either loved or she did not. There was no middle ground.”

Rosalind is perceiving Orion through the filter of his playboy persona. Her observation that she loves deeply becomes clear only in retrospect. The previous duology shows her under Dimitri’s seductive influence. She was willing to betray her family and help him destroy a city for the sake of love. Since realizing her mistake, Rosalind has used detachment as a shield from emotional involvement.

“Orion gave up on trying to win a genuine reaction from her. She looked to be in her head. She looked to live in her head, in fact. There were two types of people in the world: those who hid their wreckage on the inside and those who wore it on the outside.

This quote echoes the previous one in which Rosalind gave her rationale for living in her head. Orion’s comment indicates the degree to which he is the opposite. Self-containment isn’t his strong suit. He acts out as a way to hide his heartache. He clearly wears his wreckage on the outside.

“Better to play at being a soldier, doing what you were asked, and if the government decided to switch who was an ally and who was an adversary at the expense of the people, there would be no hurt cut deep into your heart.

Orion is indicating his own deep commitment to the Nationalist cause. At the same time, he’s describing the general attitude of spies on both sides of the battle. Practically everyone in the novel changes allegiances at some point, indicating the degree to which political ideology represents little more than expediency.

“But a righteous fire was burning in her veins. If she glanced into the mirror, she wondered if she would see a glow cast around her skin, a furious zeal coming from the inside out as her anger took the reins. Retribution for her country. Vengeance for her city. That was how she was redeeming her name.”

This quote can be paired with the preceding one, in which Orion describes his political commitment. In this one, Rosalind expresses her fury at Japanese collaborators. She’s in the process of poisoning one of her coworkers, who threatens to expose her identity out of his devotion to the foreign overlords of China. Again, she justifies an assassination by calling it redemption.

“They didn’t have to get blood on their hands, but they were guilty all the same. What was worse, being the cog or the blade of a killing machine? Didn’t they both perform the very same function if they were one part of a whole?”

Rosalind is contemplating the spies who have desk jobs. They pass on messages and perform clerical functions, but their hands are stained with blood, just as hers are. In addition, this observation implies a criticism of those who follow orders for payment. Nationalistic zeal doesn’t drive their actions. They’d switch sides whenever such a change worked to their benefit.

“‘That Tolstoy was wrong when he said every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ Rosalind let go of her arm. ‘We’re all the same. Every single one of us. It’s always because something isn’t enough.’”

Rosalind and Orion are comparing notes about whose family was worse. Both feel guilt over letting their respective families down. However, they fail to recognize the degree to which they’ve been minimized as a means of control. Family authority figures use guilt to convince children that they haven’t done enough. If the children don’t question this, they become mindless puppets of others.

“You warn me for control, Rosalind thought in correction. It was always about control: over the narrative, over what he thought was his to order around. He didn’t think Orion ought to play a covert role when that forsook the role of being the dutiful heir to an elite family.”

This quote speaks to the preceding one regarding the tactic of control. General Hong has just warned Rosalind that her husband, Orion, will disappoint her. He doesn’t want his son’s allegiance tied to anyone but himself and hopes to sow discord between Rosalind and Orion. Fortunately, Rosalind recognizes the ploy and doesn’t accept the general’s manipulative advice.

“He went around the world so tall, so confident; it was a surprise that he was capable of folding himself small, capable of seeking comfort in a girl like Rosalind. The most frightening part wasn’t that she had found herself in this position. It was that it felt natural.”

Rosalind and Orion have just escaped capture, triggering one of his panic attacks. Rosalind successfully calms him down but marvels at his vulnerability. Even more, she marvels at her willingness to offer the comfort he needs. She feels her defensiveness melting. Since this shield has offered her a measure of safety, the prospect is alarming.

“It always begins small […] Then it erupts. Then the locals make use of their numbers and form their mob, and with their fists combined, they become a fighting force. They finally find some sort of power.”

This quote describes the impromptu demonstration that forms in front of Seagreen Press. It suggests the degree to which the entire populace feels helpless in the face of foreign influence. Both the Japanese and the Western powers have infiltrated Chinese culture to such a degree that national consciousness no longer exists. It erupts periodically in small demonstrations, but these are quickly quelled.

“‘Your life is mine as mine is yours,’ she said, very seriously. ‘We are bound in duty if not in matrimony. I won’t make the same mistake twice.’ Orion’s smile had turned into a wide grin. She didn’t know what was so amusing about all this—did he like the idea of their mutual death? She had always known he was a little off the rails.”

At more than one point, the spies exchange this tagline, usually to mock their sham marriage. However, Rosalind has begun to feel a real emotional bond with Orion. Quickly recognizing the change, he grins. However, Rosalind doesn’t recognize her own transformation, which explains her observation that he must be crazy.

“You were my first hope that there might be something else […] A third category of memory. A future separate from the past. I have spent years thinking that if I just do the right thing, then I can go back to how it used to be. But maybe I don’t want that anymore.”

Rosalind has just been poisoned and is only semi-conscious when Orion makes this confession. Perhaps this gives him the courage to tell the truth. Like Rosalind, he has been trying to undo the past to find redemption. Long before Rosalind can tear herself out of that trap, Orion has already perceived a better road to salvation.

“This was a disaster. She thought she had been careful in winding and unwinding the threads of her past, placing them where they needed to be, but instead they were coming alive like a python, intent on choking her with her own lies.”

Orion and Phoebe have both discovered that Rosalind and Liza share a past. Given the convoluted false narratives that Rosalind creates as the story unfolds, it seems naive to assume that she could keep the stories straight. This is equally true of several other characters who have woven false narratives about themselves. She doesn’t realize that Phoebe’s python might be even trickier to control than her own.

“She was tired of these battle lines too. Barriers drawn in every which direction, keeping her from her own sister. They had chosen their sides. She wished there didn’t have to be sides to begin with, but that was the naive and careless part of her speaking. She knew why sides formed. Change. Revolution. Disruption.”

In this quote, Rosalind still sounds like a good Nationalist agent who preaches the need for battle lines. She dismisses her longing for love and unity as naive, but the rhetoric rings hollow. She later risks everything to save Orion—and often goes out of her way to protect Celia too. In the end, love is all that matters.

“Four years ago she could have turned Dimitri in at any point. Instead, she’d let him deceive her over and over again, until the city on fire made him finally leave, and then—only then—did she come to her senses. She couldn’t watch this city burn again.”

Orion has just been exposed as the chemical terrorist but protests that he can’t remember his own actions. His denial triggers Rosalind’s trust issues. Dimitri was a master manipulator who used Rosalind to gain gangland power. She fears letting down her guard. In the world that Rosalind occupies, people manipulate perceptions of one another constantly. It’s no wonder she can’t trust her own judgment.

“No one cares about you as much as I do. But Dimitri Voronin had never cared. How was this any different? She already had a hard enough time telling nothing from something. All she had ever known was love wielded as a weapon, love wielded as a falsity to lower her guard.”

As in the preceding quote, Rosalind hates herself for her gullibility. She wants to believe in love and wants to trust, but her entire past experience suggests that this would be a mistake. Until she can walk away from her past mistakes instead of trying to undo them, she has no hope of creating a better future.

“He wanted her to know how sorry he was to have hurt her. That he knew he might hurt her again and wished she would sit out like Phoebe instead of risking it. Rosalind opened the car door, sliding into the passenger seat. It wasn’t realistic to keep her away. This was their mission. High Tide was their combined unit, unable to be separated. One without the other was unthinkable.”

Rosalind and Orion are about to go to the warehouse that is the epicenter of the chemical plot. While Rosalind’s assertion about High Tide sounds prim and dutiful as a Nationalist spy, it also contains a kernel of truth. She and Orion are bound to one another emotionally. It would be unthinkable for them to be separated.

“We will never match up to what everything could be […] You cannot save the world. You can try to save one thing if you must, but it is enough if that one thing is yourself.”

Orion tries to convince Rosalind that her way of redeeming herself is futile. Even at this late stage, she’s convinced that if she corrects enough wrongs from the past, the future can be brighter. As Orion rightly points out, the past can’t be changed, and she can’t save everyone. She must save herself first—not the other way around.

“‘Your life is mine as mine is yours.’ It was an echo of her statement from days earlier, but now it was ringing with an entirely different caliber. ‘If I promise to save myself, can you promise to forgive yourself? Can we make an exchange?’”

When Rosalind utters this catchphrase yet again, she means the words sincerely. This time, she’s conscious of what she’s saying. Ironically, even though Orion has just counseled her about self-forgiveness and advised her to save herself, he seems unable to do the same. Rosalind can forgive him for the injury he caused her. Now, she needs him to forgive himself. This is a much harder trick for those who never measure up.