book discussion

***SPOILER***

Perhaps, I'm reading too much into it, but does the last line "Denis didn't see Beth Cooper again until late August, a week before he had intended to leave for school..." imply that he didn't go to college after all? Am I dwelling too much on the "intended" part?

Yeah, I don't think he ended up leaving either.

I don't believe he did.

I sort of wonder if that was the point of the story (I'm a huge believer in "point"s.)

At the beginning of the book Denis proclaims his love for Beth as he's getting ready to walk away from her and his old life.

But through the course of the book he learns more about who Beth really is, testing his original claim of "love".

By the end of the book he's mature enough to make the phrase really mean something, by staying with her instead of leaving her behind.

Love becomes an action verb, making Denis act on it, rather than just an abstract proclamation, without personal longterm consequence to himself.

i got the sense that this was a sequel setup, something I could do without. This is the kind of world with characters that I have a limited interest in. I enjoyed the novel, thought Rich and Denis were rendered well and given ample opportunity to express and chase their desires. But in the end I wanted an ending, not a promise for more. I guess the ending doesn't necessarily mean there will be a sequel but the very casual presentation of Denis's decision to stick around seemed odd.

I enjoyed the ending, didn't even notice the "intended" part. The whole time I read this, I felt like I was watching a funny movie, similar to Superbad or Forgetting Sarah Marshall.