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New York, 10:50 PM
Wed Dec 9
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07/23/09
(1) With a rich hubby, why did she remain in a "problem" school where she was so much abused?
(2) Whatever convinced her to accept the advances of a fifteen-year-old? She wasn't unhappy in her marriage, nor a sex-crazed spinster.
Maybe it will be spelled out for me in the film.
07/23/09
2) Sympathy, originally
07/23/09
In answer to your q's, what I think is:
1) She's a lefty, social-conscious, Guardian-reading type, believing in helping the less fortunate - her sticking with the job adds up. A very well-known type of Londoner - my parents weren't far off that.
2) Yes, I remain a bit surprised by her giving in, but I guess there is the contrast of her husband's age and the boy's youth, the rut her home life's in and the boy's wonder at her beauty and sophistication. We'd all like to think that kind of flattery wouldn't work on us.
Also, this is all written from someone else's point of view, so there's her motivation to consider too.
Thanks, Richard, for reminding me how much I enjoyed that book!
Here's an intriguing short story by Heller that was published in the London Sunday Times: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6431036.ece
07/24/09
Realistic, also, in that sometimes mamas try and equalize adult sex with children by gender. It ain't. The boy went off his teacher and took up with girls his own age. Moralists would rather have him in therapy, but I cannot imagine how I would've been harmed by such a magical event as seduction at 15 by an experienced beauty.
Mileage as always varies by gender, despite our fond hopes and best intentions.
07/25/09
TEAM HELLER
07/23/09
"John le Carre's conduct in your pages is like nothing so much as that of a man who, having relieved himself in his own hat, makes haste to clamp the brimming chapeau on his head."
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09