lines that jumped out…
We pretty much covered part 1 in class, so I’ll skip ahead to what I read so far of part 2.
The first lines I want to bring up were on page 109, first paragraph: “Because we were not lovers in the fleshly sense we had no use for the little murders.” Jon and Clare have this self-professed “half-lover” kind of relationship that’s not romantic at all, but rather solidly assured and safe. (quick sidenote: I liked the description of the two as old-fashioned sisters particularly because I’m taking a Jane Austen class as well this semester, and it was almost too easy to switch the characters out for a bizzare kind of ‘A Home at the End of Pride and Prejudice’) Their relationship is what they live for, I think, especially for Clare, who gets afraid when Jon first meets Erich. They exist like a married couple might, but without all the trouble that comes with a real romantic relationship. On the back of the book, the summary talks about how the three – Bobby, Jon, and Clare – end up living together with a child. I wondered where Jon came in, if Bobby and Clare are the two to fall in love, but I’m starting to guess now that the three stay together simply because Jon and Clare don’t want to let real love – something she thinks she’ll never have – get in the way of the relationship they’ve worked so hard to preserve.
There was also a line on 110 that caught my eye: “Like a survivor of a war, who still wears heels and lipstick to walk among the wreckage.” Clare has been through very much in her youth, and in this line I can just see her stumbling along a darkened city street in her red kimono with matching heels, red lipstick, and this dazed, disillusioned look in her eyes that keeps most passerby at a clear distance as she passes. I like the visual, especially because it gives a real picture of Clare and the duality of her self-reliance and codependence.
And finally, another few… page 122, “And now, for the first time, I wanted to hold something apart… I disliked being asked to give my feelings a name. I may have feared that in describing them so early I’d sap them of their potential for growth or change. I may have been right. But I chose that night not to cultivate secrets… I shared with Clare. She was my main love in the world. I had no other attachment half so profound.” These two paragraphs pretty much lay out Jon’s dedication to Clare at the same time as explore his inability to be truly open with anyone else without seriously overthinking and agonizing over it.
I really liked the visual of Clare too. it’s really striking, but I really like all the visuals of her, she’s eccentric but motherly. Her connection with Jonathan is something to respect. i like your thoughts of them as a married couple. I picture them as two old eccentrics sitting in rocking chairs still together until the very end.
There was also a line on 110 that caught my eye: “Like a survivor of a war, who still wears heels and lipstick to walk among the wreckage.”
I liked this line because it captured Claires character perfectly. Her past marriage, drug abuse, and abortion all caused great hardship, yet she is still very eccentric and optimistic on her future.
Like you, I was also struck my Clare. Despite being an eccentric character, I’m sure that we all know or have at least seen someone like her. You say that Jon’s relationship with Clare is “not romantic but solidly assured and safe,” which I completley agree with. I think that your description also works for Alice and Ned’s marriage. Maybe Cunningham is trying to make a point that even though Clare and Jon don’t have a romantic relationship their relationship is more like a marriage than if they had exchanged vows.