book discussion
topic: randomness or the way we intend things to go
I feel in McEwan's books that the question arises---"Is life history determined by random acts?" of do end the way that we intended to end? In this book, a detailed derailment of the wedding night is shown where he is too ardent and she is too reticent. They end in life alone and each wonders if life would have been different if they treated each other with just a little more understanding. Or indeed is what happened what each really wanted to happen.
That's a good observation. Although I have to say at the end of this novel I felt slighted, and I felt that the characters were slighted. I wanted more. I know that they were sketched well, and I believed in them, but at the same time, that dissolution happened so quickly.