Three Wishes

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-15

Chapters 16-21

Chapters 22-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Catriona “Cat” Kettle

Cat is the most intense of the Kettle family triplets. A tall 34-year-old blond, she is Lyn’s identical twin. Cat has a successful career in marketing with a well-known chocolate company. She is fiercely competitive and plans on moving up the corporate ladder. At the beginning of the story, she is unsuccessfully trying to become pregnant and envies Lyn for having had a baby so effortlessly. When Cat’s husband cheats on her, she reacts with violent outrage. To compound the problem, Cat has a miscarriage and feels her life spiraling downward. For much of the story, she is consumed with jealousy and resentment. He volatile temper causes her to act on these negative impulses and results in the infamous fondue fork stabbing incident. By the end of the novel, Cat gets her life back on track and begins to look forward instead of back.

Lyn Kettle

Lyn shares Cat’s features but not her impulsiveness. In contrast, Lyn is highly organized and very tightly wound. She has created a successful brunch catering business and is raising a two-year-old daughter as well as a teenager from her husband’s previous marriage. Lyn is heavily invested in self-improvement and tries to follow in the footsteps of highly successful people. Eventually, the strain of being a woman who is all things to all people begins to show. Lyn starts having panic attacks, which are a warning that she’s overextending herself. By the end of the story, she learns how to ask for help from others and trust them to follow through. She isn’t completely past her need to control but is showing some slight improvement.

Gemma Kettle

Gemma is a fraternal twin, so she doesn’t exactly resemble her sisters, Cat and Lyn, in looks or temperament. As children, her siblings told her she was adopted. Gemma is tall and red-haired, projecting a dreamy flower child persona in contrast to the forceful character of her sisters. Because Gemma is devoted to both of them, she always tries to act as the peacemaker. As a result, she is too yielding and has trouble asserting herself. Gemma’s engagement to an abusive fiancé further warps her chances for happiness. After he dies in a car accident, Gemma distrusts all the men she dates and destroys relationships before they have a chance to become serious. By the end of the story, Gemma learns to hold onto happiness and forms a constructive relationship with Charlie and their baby.

The Kettle Family

Maxine became the mother of triplets at the age of 19. In later years, she says that this was the worst time of her life. Her daughters view her as harsh and controlling because they fail to appreciate the difficulty of raising three children with little support from a cheating husband. Over the course of the story, Maxine mellows and remarries the man she divorced decades earlier.

Frank is the triplets’ happy-go-lucky father. He is the fun parent in contrast to Maxine. The girls are very young when their parents divorce, but Frank remains active in their lives. After his own mother is beaten and robbed, Frank develops a belated sense of responsibility. Because he’s remained in love with Maxine despite their problems, he’s happy to remarry her at the end of the story.

Nana is the triplets’ grandmother. She’s lighthearted and perky but is beginning to suffer from dementia. Her memory is vague, but her sense of humor remains. After being robbed in her home, Nana starts a new chapter of her life in a senior living community.

Maddie is Lyn’s temperamental two-year-old daughter. She’s willful and dramatic, much as her mother and aunts were at that age. Sal is a newborn who arrives at the end of the story. He is the baby Gemma intended to give to Cat but ended up keeping for herself.

Significant Others

Dan is Cat’s tall, dark, handsome, and morally questionable husband. In his younger years, he slept with Lyn before dating Cat, which temporarily puts a strain on the sisters’ relationship. Early in the novel, Dan begins cheating on Cat with Angela. He briefly ends the affair when Cat becomes pregnant but returns to Angela after Cat’s miscarriage. He eventually divorces Cat and moves to Paris.

Michael is Lyn’s understanding husband, and Kara is his sullen teenage daughter from a previous marriage. Lyn was attracted to Michael because he’s such a good listener. He is supportive through her panic attacks and patient with her attachment to her volatile family. Kara becomes less hostile to Lyn by the end of the story and even gives her fashion advice.

Charlie is the locksmith who becomes Gemma’s love interest. His sister Angela is Dan’s girlfriend, which complicates the family dynamic immensely. Charlie is heartbroken when Gemma dumps him because he doesn’t know about Gemma’s abusive past. Charlie immediately returns to Gemma’s side after finding out about their baby. Angela also demonstrates loyalty toward Dan and goes with him to start a new life in France.

Hank is an old flame that Lyn met in Spain. She remembers him as an attractive American but is disenchanted when he visits years later and has grown fat. Hank gives Cat a new lease on life by offering her a publishing contract.

Marcus is Gemma’s abusive fiancé. He alternates periods of romantic attentiveness with episodes of verbal and physical abuse. Because he threatens to kill Gemma if she tries to leave him, his death in a car accident is her only means of escape.