Three Wishes

The narrator begins by speculating about how outsiders might interpret a given situation if they know nothing about the people involved. The rest of Three Wishes is peppered with vignettes offered by observers who witness some random activity by the siblings at different periods in their lives. The observers come from all categories: old, young, male, female, happy, and sad. They generally react in a positive way to the exuberant trio who are living life at the tops of their voices. Conversely, some react in alarm when putting themselves in Maxine’s place as the harried mother of the wild bunch. The observers add an interesting dimension to the novel because they have no framework for interpreting the Kettle girls’ reactions to anything. The reader becomes aware of the context of each observer’s life but is also aware of the circumstances going on in the Kettle household at the same time. We are treated to an inside-outside view of the situation.

The opening observations dovetail neatly with the observations in the Epilogue because some of the same individuals are involved in both sequences. Olivia, the waitress who served the fondue meal, arrives on the beach just in time to see the triplets celebrating their parents’ remarriage.