Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend - re: Lan Cho

How is Lan Cho connected with Barbados? Javed loves women and is unsentimental in his relationships. Although he shares many intimate details of his life with "his women", he doesn't need to feel intimately connected to do this. These women are like therapists with fringes. Instead of paying cash, he gives gifts... usually jewelery.

We already know that Lan Cho is one such encounter. However, Lan's encounter with Javed, changes Lan's path as well. She is given the costly, but rather unsentimental impoersonal gift of a tennis bracelet. Lan understands that none of the cliches like "diamonds are forever" apply. her eyes register only stone cold cash.

Information acquired after an attempt to sell the jewelry in a diamond shop in NY (she is there leading another group of tourists - this time from the China mainland) is what finally takes her to the REAL Barbados.

There may be some interesting stories (true historical ones) in the novel: Barbados. The below excerpt is from Edward Jay Epstein's Book, "The Diamond Invention."

From: Chapter Twenty - Have you ever tried to sell a diamond?:

"Most jewelers would prefer not make a customer an offer that not only might be deemed insulting but would also undercut the widely-held notion that diamonds hold their value. Moreover, since retailers generally receive their diamonds from wholesalers on consignment and need not pay for them until they are sold, they would not readily risk their own cash to buy diamonds from customers. Rather than offer customers a fraction of what they paid for diamonds, retail jewelers usually recommend their clients to other firms
One frequently recommended is Empire Diamonds, on the 66th floor of the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan. Empire's reception room, which resembles a doctor's office, is usually crowded with elderly women who sit nervously in plastic chairs waiting for their name to be called. One by one, they are ushered into a small examining room where an appraiser scrutinizes their diamonds and makes a cash offer. 'We usually can't pay more than 60 percent of the current wholesale price,' Jack Braud, the president of Empire Diamonds, explained. 'In most cases, we have to pay less since the setting has to be discarded and we have to leave a margin for error in our evaluation [especially if the diamond is mounted in a setting].' Empire removes the diamonds from their settings, which are sold as scrap, and resells them to wholesalers. Because of the steep markup on diamonds between the wholesale and retail levels, individuals who buy retail and, ;n effect, sell wholesale often suffer enormous losses on the transaction. For example, Braud estimated that a half-carat diamond ring that might cost $2,000 at a retail jewelry store could only be sold for $600 at Empire."