[LMB] elena ekaterin and kareen

[Tzivia Adler]

i've just found miles in love at my library!  my very first impression was, 
how am i going to hold this book in one hand while hanging on to the baby in 
my other hand?
but i borrowed it anyhow :)

one line that struck me was ekaterin saying that she didn't want to go back 
to her father's house, or her brothers, because the price of free room and 
board was to go back to a child's status and have her life arranged for her, 
most likely into another marriage where her husband would arrange her life. 
also, tien had protected her so well that at thirty she (her soul? 
personality?) had grown no bigger twenty.

kareen also felt a strong reversion to childhood/dependency when returning 
to her parent's house.  she wanted to be given the reward of being treated 
as a real adult, since she was doing a real job.

both these women, at their various ages, realized that a severe lack of 
funds factored into being dependent.

elena, when she wanted to get out from her father's thumb - benign, but very 
heavy, I'd imagine, all right and proper - somehow missed worrying about 
funding.  she got a ticket to beta colony along with miles, and got 
shanghaied - err, insisted on joining - that mad expedition to transport 
'prunehooks and plowshares' to a war zone.  then her dad died and she got a 
job and got married, sort of a whirlwind slice of life.

so did elena ever have that moment of realizing she needs cash to be 
independent?  or did that somehow pass her by?