Comment on style /language

The novel is written in modern-day American English, but the main character is a young Chinese-British woman in 1912, and the narrative reflects her age, culture, and the time and place. Valora notes that the third-class passengers “sport a variety of” (2) clothing. She mentions that the “nobs” have a covered passage for boarding the ship. Words such as sport (used this way) and nob are dated terms that readers may not immediately recognize. The word “nob” is slang for an aristocratic person, but is somewhat derogatory. The word “sport” in this instance means that person has that kind of clothing. Similar words throughout the novel include dole, niggle, purloined, swoon, and pilfer. Mature readers will likely recognize them, but some younger readers may not because the terms have become obsolete in recent times.