Monday 20 May 2024

Adventures In Modern Marriage 2 - The End (Chapters 14 - end)


 RATING: GOOD

SPOILERS!!!

The novel focuses on the Broad family and Liz and Alan.

After meeting Annie, his long-ago girlfriend, Alan meets her several times, and both he and Annie are attracted to each other. Then what was bound to happen happens, and they sleep together. Both Alan and Annie know that they don't want to leave their partners.

Alan has always been truthful to Liz, so he tells her about Annie. She reacts angrily but she has the patience to ask him questions and listen to him. She knows that this is not the end of their marriage, but she is angry.

As for Annie, when she is about to tell her husband, Mitch, he misunderstands her and he confesses that he has been having an affair with a colleague. He tells her that it didn't mean anything, and he even calls the woman, Diane, to say that theirs was something meaningless, and he tells her that what they had is over.

The next day Annie decides to tell Mitch about Alan, and he reacts very angrily, saying that it is different for women. He claims that men have needs and it is expected of them to cheat, but for women intimacy leads to something deeper. Even though Annie keeps saying that what she needed was some fun, he is angry.

After spending a horrible day thinking about Annie and Alan, Mitch realises that what he is afraid of is losing Annie, and he goes to her contrite and conciliatory. He and Annie make up, but then there is the doorbell, and Diane appears. She is upset and tells her that after having to resign from her job, she is going. Then Annie learns that she and Mitch have been together for three years; they lived together when they were in Cape Town, and she really thought they would end up together. Diane also says that Mitch told her that the passion between him and his wife had died, and he even serenaded her. After she is gone, Annie is furious. All Mitch has told her are lies, so she walks out.

Annie doesn't know what to do and calls Alan. Yet, Alan is out of the house, and Liz picks up, and she tells her to come to the house. On his part Mitch is miserable and crying, and then his daughter appears. He tells her about her mother walking out on him and about both of them having had affairs. Then Ellie says that she is going to find out where her mother is because her boyfriend, Franco, has some gadget that can locate mobiles. So the three of them go, and they end up at Alan and Liz's home. Mitch doesn't dare to go in, but Ellie and Franco go inside, and she storms in angrily. It is Liz who tells Ellie a few truths, and then things calm down, and Annie finally goes home with Mitch.

I really find this subplot funny, but I have to say that I don't understand how Alan and Annie claim that they love their partners, and still they risk what they have for a fling. 

As for the Broads, Henry has come to terms with the fact that he has been pushed out of his job and is not so young any longer. Laura has also understood that she needs to become a new woman; she is not a mother any longer in the sense of a mother with young children, so she needs to rethink her position in life. Carrie has finally left, and even though she didn't want her to go, she knows it is good for her.

I enjoyed the book. I love how the author exemplifies the nature of relationship through all these characters. 

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