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Mavis Albright
Gigi is the second woman to come to the Convent. She is attractive and aware of it, and dresses in revealing clothing that scandalizes the townspeople of Ruby. Gigi has spent time as a Civil Rights protester, and she is haunted by the shooting of a young Black boy she witnessed at a protest. She carries guilt for giving up her activism. Gigi’s lover, Mikey, tells her about a rock formation that resembles a couple eternally having sex, and after he goes to prison, she leaves in search of these rocks. She finds no evidence that they exist, but she still chooses to believe in them. When she finally gives up the search, another man tells her about two trees that grow into each other’s arms in Ruby, prompting Gigi to travel there. She doesn’t find the trees, but she decides to stay at the Convent anyway, despite her antagonistic relationship with Mavis. Gigi also carries out a sexual relationship with K.D., who is obsessed with her as a sexual object, but she eventually ends the relationship. Later, she grows close to Seneca, and it is hinted the two might be in a romantic relationship as Gigi hopes to convince Seneca to run away with her.
Grace (Gigi) Quotes in Paradise
The Paradise quotes below are all either spoken by Grace (Gigi) or refer to Grace (Gigi). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Grace Quotes
It was the I-give woman serving up her breasts like two baked Alaskas on a platter that took all the kick out of looking in the boy’s eyes. Gigi watched him battle his stare and lose every time. He said his name was K.D. and tried hard to enjoy her face as much as her cleavage when he talked. It was a struggle she expected, rose to and took pleasure in––normally. But the picture she had wakened to an hour earlier spoiled it.
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Consolata Quotes
That is how the loud dreaming began. How the stories rose in that place. Half-tales and the never-dreamed escaped from their lips to soar high above guttering candles, shifting dusts from crates and bottles. And it was never important to know who said the dream or whether it had meaning. In spite of or because their bodies ache, they step easily into the dreamer’s tale.
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Grace (Gigi) Character Timeline in Paradise
The timeline below shows where the character Grace (Gigi) appears in Paradise. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Grace
...Steward Morgan, is sitting with his friends by the Oven when he sees a woman (Gigi) step off a bus. She draws attention because she is dressed provocatively in tight pants...
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...segregated swimming pool. His desire for that swimming pool is similar to his desire for Gigi, the woman from the bus, but this new desire seems within reach.
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The story switches to Gigi’s perspective. Her lover Mikey tells her about a rock formation near his hometown in Wish,...
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Gigi’s grandfather calls her to demand that she comes home, and asks he if the deaths...
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Ruby strikes Gigi as undeveloped, though she enjoys “the waves of raw horniness” that the young men send...
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...stops at the Convent to pick up the body of Mother, who has recently died. Gigi is startled to learn she has been riding in a hearse, and she is further...
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Gigi explores the Convent while Connie sleeps. When Connie wakes up, Gigi asks who died, and...
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Gigi spends the night in the Convent, and the next morning she is unsettled to find...
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Mavis returns after a month away to find Gigi sunbathing naked outside the Convent. The two women are immediately at odds, but Connie assures...
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Seneca
...serving in Vietnam, Sweetie Fleetwood’s mental health is worsening, and K.D. continues his relationship with Gigi. Dovey discusses these issues, and the general disrespect of the youth, with other prominent women...
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...uncomfortably in the Convent, trying to make herself as agreeable as possible to Mavis and Gigi. She has always tried to please, including in her relationship the abusive Eddie Turtle, which...
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Divine
...and land-owning men of Ruby, and so that he can rid his thoughts of “that Gigi bitch.” Though he pursued Gigi for years, she never returned his affection, and finally his...
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...he frequently flirts with others behind her back. Billie Delia knows about his love for Gigi, because after a vicious fight with Billie Delia’s mother, Billie Delia lived for a time...
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...conduct with each other. Soon, however, Mavis drives up in her Cadillac, bringing with her Gigi, Seneca, and a girl the townspeople don’t recognize (Pallas). Unlike the other guests, they wear...
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...Pallas was wealthy and happy, she felt a connection to the woman. As Mavis and Gigi bicker about K.D., Seneca notices that Pallas is shivering despite the heat, and she hugs...
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Back in the present, Mavis and Gigi’s argument about the wedding escalates into a physical fight that forces Mavis to park the...
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As the women start to return to bed, Gigi asks Pallas about her mother. Pallas reveals Dee Dee’s full name is Divine, and Gigi...
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Consolata
...Mary Magna finally dies when Connie is 54, and despite the support of Mavis and Grace, she feels utterly untethered to the world.
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...mop handles into herself to kill the fetus. She gave birth prematurely to baby, whom Gigi named Che, and Che died shortly after. Connie believes that she will die “ungrieved in...
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Gigi, in the bath, recalls a day when K.D. beat her and the other women tore...
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Lone
...to highlight the Convent women’s evil: their behavior at K.D. and Arnette’s wedding, Mavis and Gigi’s fight on the road, Sweetie’s claim that they poisoned her, and Sweetie’s claim that she...
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...at giving up his light-skinned fiancée when the town demanded it. K.D. craves revenge against Gigi for rejecting him and against the Convent as a whole for killing his first child...
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Save-Marie
In the following years, the Convent women experience “the reprieve.” Gigi, in an army uniform, appears to her father in prison. Later, she swims naked in...
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