Demi answers “Does the page and a half at the beginning...”

Princessdarcy asked this question about Exit West:

Does the page and a half at the beginning that the author spends talking about the parent's sex life in vivid detail have anything to do with the actual story? The father's impotence and the mother's insatiable sexual appetite seems to be well out of place...

Demi I think there is a lot of meaning behind Saeed's parents sex life in the novel. The paragraph detailing their sex life throughout their marriage stood…moreI think there is a lot of meaning behind Saeed's parents sex life in the novel. The paragraph detailing their sex life throughout their marriage stood out to me at the end of the novel when Nadia and Saeed met half a century later. Saeed, noting that maybe things would have been different if he had had sex with Nadia, and she noting if they had married. But even through Saeed's parents distance in their relationship, the intimacy and label of their love didn’t save them from the way life can put a distinct strain on ones relationship. (less)

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