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jodar's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a superbly crafted, introspective novel in which the MC relives his life – work, marriage and especially friendships – as he reaches retirement age. Life as lived includes struggle and accomplishments, good luck and fateful hardships. The MC sees that individuals have some control on how their lives turn out, but it is a limited control, subject to nature and the whims of society.
The novel’s focus is on the friendship between two married couples as it waxes and wanes and waxes again over several decades, starting in the 1930s. It is a complicated friendship, and to an extent the MC views the relationship from the outside as it is the two wives who are the closest knit. The MC ponders the deep significance of friendship in providing meaning to life, despite the friction that arises from time to time, more significant than any public accomplishments he has won as an author and academic. The MC also recognises how vital the intimacy of marriage has been to both couples, even as he acknowledges the negatives of dependence–dominance in each marriage.
Ultimately life is viewed as tragedy, though; there is no ultimate hope of blessedness for all the “decent godless people” (MC, Part 2, Chapter 1) in the novel.
The novel’s focus is on the friendship between two married couples as it waxes and wanes and waxes again over several decades, starting in the 1930s. It is a complicated friendship, and to an extent the MC views the relationship from the outside as it is the two wives who are the closest knit. The MC ponders the deep significance of friendship in providing meaning to life, despite the friction that arises from time to time, more significant than any public accomplishments he has won as an author and academic. The MC also recognises how vital the intimacy of marriage has been to both couples, even as he acknowledges the negatives of dependence–dominance in each marriage.
Ultimately life is viewed as tragedy, though; there is no ultimate hope of blessedness for all the “decent godless people” (MC, Part 2, Chapter 1) in the novel.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Medical trauma, and Cancer
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