I know I’m starting really late on my responses, but better than never. I have found it very interesting to listen to everyone’s thoughts on the novel so far as my own thoughts have been relatively unformed. I have had trouble deciding many things about the novel, such as the basic question of is it good, to questions such as what is Ruiz de Burton trying to do or say, if anything (is it a so-called Feminist novel, is her goal to create change in US society and culture, etc.)? As I tend to think of novels first and foremost as works of art, or at least from the standpoint of their artistic qualities, I did not especially like the novel in the early stages of reading it. However, there is of course much more to literature and, namely, novels than aesthetics. This novel forced me to think more complexly and subtly about the merit of a novel, for, though I do not think Who Would Have Thought It? is the most brilliant novel written in the US during this period in terms of artistic and literary merit, it is not only very unique (a Mexican American woman’s commentary on one of the most historic and foundational regions of the Protestant US), but is an intriguing work when placed in the context of the time in which it was written, in terms of race issues, gender issues, ideas about the US government and history. Not only was Ruiz de Burton an amazing woman and person whose life was interwoven into one of the most important parts of US History, but I have found her boldness, her perceptiveness, her brilliant irony, and her great ability of revealing the hypocrasy and falsity of many “American” national myths, “American” identity and society, refreshing and enlightening. I could go on about the quality of the novel, but what interests me more about this novel is its perspective, that of its author and the various perspectives she presents and represents in the novel.