Devotion - Norman
Devotion. Perhaps not what I would have titled this novel. Perhaps "Forgiveness" or "Grace" or even "Love". But not "Devotion."
Norman's novel is a love story of sorts. A whirlwind romance ruined by a perceived affair on the honeymoon. It tells more about the relationship of the son to his father-in-law after the affair is found out by the father-in-law and an ensuing argument ends in a car accident leaving the father in need of extensive care. The care is not given by the daughter, although she continues to visit often, but is provided by the man who caused the accident and the alleged affair to begin with.
As poignantly expressed by the estranged wife late in the novel, the husband, the cause for her and her father's pain, never goes out of his way to apologize, to make amends, to offer what he could for an explanation. He simply continues to live on the same estate with his recovering father-in-law, caring for a herd (a gaggle? a school? a what?) of swans.
The novel comes together quickly in the end, with the assumption the reader was along for that outcome.
I guess I don't get it. The only devotion I see is the care these men, particularly the father, takes for the swans. And while I could extrapolate the idea that swans mate for life, even that idea is questioned in the novel, leaving me to wonder exactly which character is demonstrating any sense of devotion. The end feels like a rough compromise, not a redemption of a heartfelt adoration. I do not sense any forgiveness, nor do I sense any apology. I am left feeling frustrated that this woman never made her husband stand up for himself, that a relationship that was "love at first sight" was never fought for by anyone. That it feels as if everyone simply "settled".
I do not believe any of it is devotion.
Norman's novel is a love story of sorts. A whirlwind romance ruined by a perceived affair on the honeymoon. It tells more about the relationship of the son to his father-in-law after the affair is found out by the father-in-law and an ensuing argument ends in a car accident leaving the father in need of extensive care. The care is not given by the daughter, although she continues to visit often, but is provided by the man who caused the accident and the alleged affair to begin with.
As poignantly expressed by the estranged wife late in the novel, the husband, the cause for her and her father's pain, never goes out of his way to apologize, to make amends, to offer what he could for an explanation. He simply continues to live on the same estate with his recovering father-in-law, caring for a herd (a gaggle? a school? a what?) of swans.
The novel comes together quickly in the end, with the assumption the reader was along for that outcome.
I guess I don't get it. The only devotion I see is the care these men, particularly the father, takes for the swans. And while I could extrapolate the idea that swans mate for life, even that idea is questioned in the novel, leaving me to wonder exactly which character is demonstrating any sense of devotion. The end feels like a rough compromise, not a redemption of a heartfelt adoration. I do not sense any forgiveness, nor do I sense any apology. I am left feeling frustrated that this woman never made her husband stand up for himself, that a relationship that was "love at first sight" was never fought for by anyone. That it feels as if everyone simply "settled".
I do not believe any of it is devotion.
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