Christine and Ida

The sections entitled Christine and Ida in the novel A Yellow Raft in Blue Water give great insight and provide great closure for the novel as a whole. After reading the section Rayona and then proceeding to read Christine it was interesting to see Rayona's place within Christine's life. It seems to me that Rayona has in a way replaced Lee's place in Christine's life. This idea partially comes from both Rayona and Lee's relationships with Christine and Dayton. Dayton came between Christine and Lee; however, he brings Rayona back to Christine and works as a mediator between the two. Rayona takes on many aspects that Lee previously had including her rodeo riding, importance in Christine's life, and relationship with Dayton. Both Rayona and Lee are seen as two of the most important people in Christine's life; however, Christine is more worried about herself and being the center of attention in both instances with Rayona and Lee. In Rayona's section of the novel I, as the reader, learned to not like Christine as a mother to Rayona; however, the section about Christine gave great insight into why things happened the way they did. This section definitely made me feel less angry towards Christine but the negative feelings were not all the way diminished.
The section from Ida's perspective is very interesting and ties together many of the loose ends in the novel. This section diminished even more of the dislike felt towards Christine. I found it very interesting to find out that Ida liked to be called Aunt Ida and not mother because she was in fact not Christine's mother. This fact was a surprise as through the other sections I was not able to realize this. Christine's experience with Ida explains further why she is the way she is and unable to let people into her life until the end of her section of the novel. Ida is a very interesting character and I really enjoyed reading about her life and her sacrifices for Christine, Lee, and Rayona.
This novel was a pleasure to read and I found every character and the mysteries behind them very intriguing.