Observing without really seeing and inattentional blindness—that is, when someone fails to see something in plain sight because they are not expecting it to be there—are recurring themes in this collection. In “Who’s Irish?,” the narrator makes a comment to the mother-in-law about their children’s marriage by stating, “I was never against the marriage either…I just wonder if they look at the whole problem” (7). The grandmother does not expand on this thought or offer up what she thinks the “whole” problem might be. There are many small problems, but the “whole problem” remains unspoken.

In “The Water Faucet Vision,” the narrator is so consumed with her working miracle to get Patty Creamer’s father to return that she does not see what is going on at her own house until her mother is pushed out the window by her father. In “Duncan in China,” when Duncan asks Louise if she has seen the statue of Mao’s widow with the noose around her neck, Louise blushes but replies, “I see nothing” (55). Louise remains a mystery to Duncan throughout the story. Even when Professor Mo suggests that not everything about Louise is as it seems, Duncan is still faithful in his desire for her.