I think their pasts are treated with a voice that sees their role as those of innocents. That's reflected in the past time sequences. They're less "written."
Chang-Rae LeeBy definition it uses and plays and delights in time. It delights in the interlacing of chronologies and the consequences of that interlacing. And those have personal and psychological expressions in a character. Aside from other issues of writing, psychological characterization is what narrative can do best.
Chang-Rae LeeIt's not that I don't enjoy other people, but what I find with writers is this back and forth. And also, there's no need to talk about work.
Chang-Rae Lee