daughter of a connecticut dentist father and a first union bank branch-manager mother , a sheen of red , like a rush of blood , undermining the whiteness of her skin ( her mothers skin ) ; coarse ruddy hair , which she wore in a fat kinky braid ( her fathers hair ) ; a bulbous round nose and full red lips that hung open , giving her the appearance of an imbecile ; happy and eager and not yet fully comprehending .