But they are better than this. In their sunbaked life of hardship, they gradually merge. Then, in an act of primordial magic, they move through and beyond the gulf that once divided them. When they come out standing on opposite shores, Isabel and Tristao have changed places. So is white, if you look.
Passionate love is the embodiment of empathy.
The promise is fulfilled. In the folds of a mythic, slightly funky love story, the magician John Updike has concealed layers of contradictory acknowledgment of the workings of the world. In the very last moment, he transcends wisecracks and holds fast to drama. The story pivots on the moment when Isabel must give up the D.A.R. ring, in a bizarre sacrifice through which she both saves and loses Tristao and herself. Heartsick, she slipped off the inscribed ring and set it in the shaman's cupped hand. . . .