Lisa’s answer to “Not sure what to make of Duke's booty call to Lara while he was at the hospital. Why did she agree…” > Likes and Comments
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I think this scene was included to erase any doubt that Duke had always been & still is a narcissistic jerk, & to show that Lara wasn't over her crush on him & couldn't see it until this happened. This scene was a turning point, "justified" because it enabled Lara to compartmentalize the fairytale romance apart from it's ugly ending, & move on.
Hmm, interesting. I agree with you that it did enable her to compartmentalize, but I think that makes me hate the scene even more. I'd much rather have her face the fact that the relationship was a sham and tell it like it is.
I think Lara knew all along that the relationship with Duke was a sham, but she was young & just didn't care at the time. She had an extraordinary summer fling with someone who became famous, & that's what she remembered most & told her girls (including that Duke dumped her.) Revealing their last encounter was a line no parent would cross.
I wish the author also sheltered me from their last encounter. Lol! But on a more serious note, thank you for your comment! I love getting another perspective!
I’m so happy to have found this thread, and this particular comment about not understanding why the author decided to add this event to the story. My review of the book said exactly the same thing. I loved Lara up in that scene, but allowing Duke to take her into a psych ward bathroom and have unprotected sex with her was not in keeping with her character at all and made me lose my affection and respect for her. I just can’t imagine that any young woman, unless she were extremely self-hating, would allow that to happen, and nothing about Lara up until that point indicated she had self-worth issues. And to compound that, when he comes to visit, he shows such disregard for her because he doesn’t even remember she was with him when he first visited the farm. Then Lara allowing his ashes to be buried on her farm makes the ending absolutely unrealistic and unsympathetic for me. Just about ruined it, and I LOVED it up until then!!
Totally agree, Jud! I liked it a lot up until that point, too. That was horrible when he didn't even remember her!
And also not realistic. He spent most of the summer with her, he recognizes her immediately when he arrives, he’s been thinking about this farm frequently, but he doesn’t recall she was there?? His memory was that he alone was invited to the director’s family’s farm? That doesn’t make sense. She’s the one who brought him. Oh well…
I think it is realistic though! Duke was self-centered & everything was always about him, so he vaguely remembered the Tom Lake summer & only himself at the farm. But don't be so hard on Lara...she never forgot Tom Lake or the self-worth issues that led to her last sexual encounter with Duke. Yes, it was disturbing, but that one act doesn't define her as a person. It all makes sense in the context of who they were at the time.
Who of us hasn't done something in our 20s that we now look back on with shame and perplexity? I think Lara agreed to visit because she felt she had to, she was still curious about Duke and his life, and she hadn't quite gotten over him. I also think that this episode and the aftermath helped her close the door on him once and for all. Remember when he comes to the farm and she is pregnant with her last daughter? By that time, the Duke enchantment period was over.
I think there are a few separate questions here. One, which I think Judith and Voracious reader are addressing, is explaining how, given the author’s choice to insert these plot events in the story, such plot events make some sense. A second is whether, as a reader, up until that event, there are clear reasons to expect that that is how Lara would behave under the circumstances of Duke asking her to go into the bathroom of a psych ward and take off her tights and let him have sex with her without protection. And three, what are rhe pro’s and con’s of the author’s choice to create these plot elements as compared to other ways the book could have ended. In real life, if someone does something, you have to accept they’ve done it and try to figure out how/why the person made that choice, and watch to see how that choice affects that person’s life going forward. I think the criticism here, at least from me, is, WHY create that event at the psych hospital when it’s even questionable whether it’s consistent with we character, why create an event that tempts the reader to lose respect for Lara, why decide to make Duke not remember Lara was at the farm during his first visit when that might not make sense to some readers, and for me, most of all, having decided to make Duke such a horrible, unsympathetic person through those two choices, why have Lara be perfectly fine with burying Duke’s ashes in her family’s sacred cemetery? I’m just saying, those seem like flawed choices to me in light of everything that came before, and in comparison to so many other possible ways to end the book. It’s subjective for sure, but it’s more about critiquing the author than analyzing the character, if that makes sense?
Still don't know where you got such mad respect for young Lara in the first place or why you lost it. When we met her, she was just young, naive, & sexually uninhibited, & her choices back then didn't reflect on her character or really affect her life much going forward. Tom Lake was 25+ years ago...Patchett's tell-all ending just revealed the Duke Lara knew, good & bad, past & present.
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judith
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Nov 13, 2023 11:00AM
I think this scene was included to erase any doubt that Duke had always been & still is a narcissistic jerk, & to show that Lara wasn't over her crush on him & couldn't see it until this happened. This scene was a turning point, "justified" because it enabled Lara to compartmentalize the fairytale romance apart from it's ugly ending, & move on.
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Hmm, interesting. I agree with you that it did enable her to compartmentalize, but I think that makes me hate the scene even more. I'd much rather have her face the fact that the relationship was a sham and tell it like it is.
I think Lara knew all along that the relationship with Duke was a sham, but she was young & just didn't care at the time. She had an extraordinary summer fling with someone who became famous, & that's what she remembered most & told her girls (including that Duke dumped her.) Revealing their last encounter was a line no parent would cross.
I wish the author also sheltered me from their last encounter. Lol! But on a more serious note, thank you for your comment! I love getting another perspective!
I’m so happy to have found this thread, and this particular comment about not understanding why the author decided to add this event to the story. My review of the book said exactly the same thing. I loved Lara up in that scene, but allowing Duke to take her into a psych ward bathroom and have unprotected sex with her was not in keeping with her character at all and made me lose my affection and respect for her. I just can’t imagine that any young woman, unless she were extremely self-hating, would allow that to happen, and nothing about Lara up until that point indicated she had self-worth issues. And to compound that, when he comes to visit, he shows such disregard for her because he doesn’t even remember she was with him when he first visited the farm. Then Lara allowing his ashes to be buried on her farm makes the ending absolutely unrealistic and unsympathetic for me. Just about ruined it, and I LOVED it up until then!!
Totally agree, Jud! I liked it a lot up until that point, too. That was horrible when he didn't even remember her!
And also not realistic. He spent most of the summer with her, he recognizes her immediately when he arrives, he’s been thinking about this farm frequently, but he doesn’t recall she was there?? His memory was that he alone was invited to the director’s family’s farm? That doesn’t make sense. She’s the one who brought him. Oh well…
I think it is realistic though! Duke was self-centered & everything was always about him, so he vaguely remembered the Tom Lake summer & only himself at the farm. But don't be so hard on Lara...she never forgot Tom Lake or the self-worth issues that led to her last sexual encounter with Duke. Yes, it was disturbing, but that one act doesn't define her as a person. It all makes sense in the context of who they were at the time.
Who of us hasn't done something in our 20s that we now look back on with shame and perplexity? I think Lara agreed to visit because she felt she had to, she was still curious about Duke and his life, and she hadn't quite gotten over him. I also think that this episode and the aftermath helped her close the door on him once and for all. Remember when he comes to the farm and she is pregnant with her last daughter? By that time, the Duke enchantment period was over.
I think there are a few separate questions here. One, which I think Judith and Voracious reader are addressing, is explaining how, given the author’s choice to insert these plot events in the story, such plot events make some sense. A second is whether, as a reader, up until that event, there are clear reasons to expect that that is how Lara would behave under the circumstances of Duke asking her to go into the bathroom of a psych ward and take off her tights and let him have sex with her without protection. And three, what are rhe pro’s and con’s of the author’s choice to create these plot elements as compared to other ways the book could have ended. In real life, if someone does something, you have to accept they’ve done it and try to figure out how/why the person made that choice, and watch to see how that choice affects that person’s life going forward. I think the criticism here, at least from me, is, WHY create that event at the psych hospital when it’s even questionable whether it’s consistent with we character, why create an event that tempts the reader to lose respect for Lara, why decide to make Duke not remember Lara was at the farm during his first visit when that might not make sense to some readers, and for me, most of all, having decided to make Duke such a horrible, unsympathetic person through those two choices, why have Lara be perfectly fine with burying Duke’s ashes in her family’s sacred cemetery? I’m just saying, those seem like flawed choices to me in light of everything that came before, and in comparison to so many other possible ways to end the book. It’s subjective for sure, but it’s more about critiquing the author than analyzing the character, if that makes sense?
Still don't know where you got such mad respect for young Lara in the first place or why you lost it. When we met her, she was just young, naive, & sexually uninhibited, & her choices back then didn't reflect on her character or really affect her life much going forward. Tom Lake was 25+ years ago...Patchett's tell-all ending just revealed the Duke Lara knew, good & bad, past & present.
