Ian "Marvin" Graye’s Reviews > Impossible Object > Status Update

This story, "The Sea", is told from the point of view of the woman. It explores many of the themes of Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse", except that the boat trip occurs more spontaneously than Woolf's, with unforeseen consequences. I suspect that this story precedes and is about the same characters (Mr and Mrs Mostyn) as the second story "A Morning in the Life of Intelligent People".

The couple, as narrated by the writer in the first person, are found out by the woman's husband.

This story appears to be told from the perspective of the man in the couple, but is probably the story written by the single writer who narrated the public house chapter.

The narrator (who is writing a biography of Nietzsche) lives with Hippolyta for a time in Rome, overlooking the Borghese gardens. In the style of Alberto Moravia. In Pisa he sees a girl with long black hair with whom he had been in love a long time ago.

Another couple, married but not to each other, perform mythic roles in a public house, sometimes seeming to "hover slightly above their seats like hummingbirds", doing their best to "maintain ecstasy", while the unmarried narrator watches guiltily. "Within love is the curse of opposites."

Another glimpse of darkness, if not a glimpse in the darkness. Is marriage a form of trench warfare? "The enemy is the desire to fight in order to be martyred and to get comfort from this." Are marital disputes motivated by self-abuse? Are we closer when we are apart? "There is perhaps no love without power." A third person, a him, though presumably not the one from the second chapter. Same couple as first chapter?

The things intelligent people do to each other when they slip a ring on each other's finger. I want to re-read this chapter/story to re-assess the pacing and how the detail is accumulated. Again, a family is haunted by something from the past. We are left to guess at its nature, although we have a fair idea of what, if not when. We've progressed from something in the cellar to some sort of skeleton in the closet.

My first reaction to the writing is the power of observation. Then I notice just how rich it is, without necessarily being purple. Finally, every now and again, but still quite frequently, sentences make you want to stop reading and contemplate, even if they're not meant to meant to convey anything profound. I suspect I'm in the hands of a master.