A review by bellebelly
On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks

3.0

This was the first Faulks book I've read, although I know we have the French trilogy. The writing was gorgeous, which is good, because it wasn't the greatest story ever. It's about a British diplomat's wife who has an affair while living with her husband in Washington DC. I did like the depictions of the emotions involved in infidelity. She loves her--(Non sequitor: Hey, there's no male word for mistress, is there? That's weird, there should be. Mister? Master? Neither of those are right. It's like how there's no satisfying female equivalent of 'guy'.) Anyway, she loves Frank, the guy she's having an affair with, but she never stops loving her husband, who is an alcoholic undergoing a nervous breakdown and professional difficulties. When she is with her family, she feels like standing by them is the most important thing, but when she's with Frank, she feels like she can leave them behind for him. We get some chapters from Frank's perspective--he knows and likes the husband, and the husband's perspective, as he goes from ignorance to suspicion to certainty about the affair. I just thought it was a fairly honest portrayal of all emotions involved in infidelity--absolutely nothing is black and white.

Set in 1960, this all unfolds against the backdrop of Nixon and Kennedy's presidential campaigns and the cold war.