When I asked why you'd "pushed on" wasn't being sarcastic or troublesome in any way. I was wondering whether there was a quality in the novel that was propelling you forward.
About three years ago my family and I moved to a pretty Somerset village. Initially, we fell in with an entirely inappropriate crowd. We went to dinner parties in houses that felt un-natural and alien and tried to get along with people whose ideas about life where diametrically opposed to our own. I was in a job that I hated. More than once, I held my head in hands and asked: "Has it come to this?".
Happily, it hadn't.
Perhaps this has given me a little insight into Frank and April's situation.
Here's the thing that exercised me whilst reading:
Is Yates proposing some solution to Frank and April's dilemma? If they were to embrace honesty would their problems resolve? If they'd accepted that their bogeyman - suburban mediority - was just a manifestation of their insecurities could they have led happy lives? And how could they come to this realisation.
Maybe he considered them trapped between the 50's and 60's; "modern" enough to see their predicament, but, unlike John Givings (who wouldn't givin) lacking the language and insight to work through and beyond it.
Or is it just the story of two unhappy people creating an exponentially unhappier marriage?
Maybe it is and it's just that I'm not familiar with people and situations he is observing. I certainly don't recognise the characters.
About three years ago my family and I moved to a pretty Somerset village. Initially, we fell in with an entirely inappropriate crowd. We went to dinner parties in houses that felt un-natural and alien and tried to get along with people whose ideas about life where diametrically opposed to our own. I was in a job that I hated. More than once, I held my head in hands and asked: "Has it come to this?".
Happily, it hadn't.
Perhaps this has given me a little insight into Frank and April's situation.
Here's the thing that exercised me whilst reading:
Is Yates proposing some solution to Frank and April's dilemma? If they were to embrace honesty would their problems resolve? If they'd accepted that their bogeyman - suburban mediority - was just a manifestation of their insecurities could they have led happy lives? And how could they come to this realisation.
Maybe he considered them trapped between the 50's and 60's; "modern" enough to see their predicament, but, unlike John Givings (who wouldn't givin) lacking the language and insight to work through and beyond it.
Or is it just the story of two unhappy people creating an exponentially unhappier marriage?