Questions About Love Marriage

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Answered Questions (4)

What role did Pepperdine play in Jasmine's story? Is he a good guy or a bad guy?

Cari Yasmin is also the victim of emotional incest and I think some of this comes out in her relationship with Pepperdine. He helps her find desire and pas…moreYasmin is also the victim of emotional incest and I think some of this comes out in her relationship with Pepperdine. He helps her find desire and passion but also, as an older man, a doctor and her boss, he is a figure she deeply resents. She becomes increasingly angry at him and I saw that as her trying to transfer all the anger she had towards her father and could not express.

Pepperdine is a character with whom Yasmin could have had a real relationship. His Christmas gift was thoughtful and he does tell her she could move in with him, if things were unbearable at home. So we see that for him, at least, what they had was promising and he was willing to move forward. But Yasmin was not really interested in him that way and he realized it.
In the end, being with Pepperdine also helped her realize the way she was handling her interpersonal relationships was immature and self-centered.(less)

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In the context of addiction counseling, Ali has drawn attention to the problem of covert, or psychological, incest as a dynamic in some dysfunctional families. I can't think of any other novels that have addressed this issue. Do you know of any?

Seawitch I’ve never heard it referred to as covert incest. It’s definitely a dynamic that occurs in families and certainly there are families that have these k…moreI’ve never heard it referred to as covert incest. It’s definitely a dynamic that occurs in families and certainly there are families that have these kinds of subsystems. The connection to addiction was new to me. When substance use occurs in families, it’s quite common to have very diffuse boundaries and these can contribute to sexual frisson/abuse as well as parentification. (less)

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Joe & Jasmin both had dysfunctional upbringings...what are the similarities & differences they experienced? Are they capable of "recovery?"

Seawitch

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

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What did you think of the ending (non-ending?)

Cari

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