All men are bastards, apparently. They'll marry you out of some misplaced sense of obligation (and because they don't fancy being alone), have kids with you, shag other women with no guilt whatsoever and fantasise about leaving you. And then they will leave you with a note on the kitchen table with no real explanation other than 'I can't do this anymore'. Greash. Get my a white dress and a priest stat.
I know that not all men are bastards, but this novella doesn't fill me with confidence (much like the distubring portrait of suburban dreams gone sour in Richard Yates excellent Revolutionary Road). This is a fairly bleak and depressing insight into the workings of a male mind, and the protaganist of this piece Jay, is apathetic, selfish and unlikeable.
The theme can be broadly described as 'when is enough not enough?' - that weird feeling when we know we should be happy with our lot (health, family, a job) but still something is missing.....that first world depression of not feeling like we've achieved enough despite a wealth of love and happiness. Now that's something that men and women can relate to.
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Sounds gruelling poppet. A couple of my friends, clearly having no idea what it was about, watched Revolutionary Road on their anniversary and then kind of looked at each other and were like 'So, should we just call it quits now then?'.
ReplyDeleteI guess what you're saying here is that this is probably not a great engagement / get well soon present?
Strangely, I feel like I want to read it.
Noice.
Hahahaha, what a TERRIBLE movie to see on your annivesary! You could do worse than reading this, and it only takes an afternoon or evening, so get your hands on a 1 pound copy!
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