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The Comfort of Strangers
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The Comfort of Strangers - Dec BOTM
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I just read the questions and now I am not so sure I want to read the book. Yikes!
Yeah, I just gave it a 2 star rating - the craft is excellent but the characters are awful. But what is interesting about these questions actually is that I think they are looking at the less interesting half of the story. To me this book is not about the monsters Robert and Caroline - they are pretty one dimensional in their sadomasochism and backstory they are given to justify it, which is pretty thin.
I found Mary and Colin more interesting - if I totally disagreed with how I think actual people in that situation would act. They are bored, have a terrible sex life and keep getting lost. Then they meet Robert who is clearly stalking them, seems very creepy and threatening (maybe drugs them, locks them in his apartment, clothes gone). Then only once they escape the first time are they suddenly invigorated - having sex everywhere, sharing their thoughts with each other, finally "alive". And so they purposely go back. Knowing how threatening it all was. The decision to take a real risk happened when they got off the boat on that side of the city to go back to the apartment. And yet they didn't really believe in it. They wanted a thrill but they didn't think that they were dealing with a murderer. So they can't escape, Mary lets herself be drugged again, it doesn't occur to her that will happen or make her unable to actually defend herself. Colin is physically caught by someone he can't over-power, but I think he thinks until the end that the worst that is going to happen is rape. These are mostly conventional people for whom the thrill of transgression is a temptation and then a devastation.
I have just been reading Gogol and as I write this it occurs to me that this kind of reads like the old morality tales of people being fooled by the devil into doing terrible things to fulfill their wishes - he has several such.
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But what is interesting about these questions actually is that I think they are looking at the less int..."
Excellent review Jenna.
I agree completely with Jenna. The questions are immaterial to what is really happening in the plot and in the character development. One does not need to know or care about what motivates Robert or Caroline, one has only to believe that they are deeply disturbed and capable of anything. You need to sense Caroline's masochism well before she tells us about it. You need to sense Robert's violent tendencies and his homoerotic interests well before they are explained. What is really in question is why Colin and Mary allow themselves to be used. Why they are waking zombies at times, often getting lost. Mary in particular feeling as if she has no will of her own. Also the last question is simply wrong as Jenna points out, (AI no doubt) because Colin does not decide to die. Colin believes he is bargaining for Mary's life but only at the expense of some violence or violation. McEwan has a mastery but I do not appreciate his characters nor the underlying premise of this book, that we are all in search of victimization.
Note: I agree with everything Jenna and Gail point out above – very insightful and well written comments :) I’m also puzzled that these questions focus so much on characters we spend no time with.1. Did his father’s method of discipline turn Robert into a sexual masochist with Caroline? What else might have contributed to this?
I assumed that this was the case. His father sounded pretty awful. Then again, Caroline says that he makes up stories, so perhaps the beatings didn’t even happen.
2. How do you reconcile Robert's machismo with his blatant homosexual attraction to Colin?
This is a pretty well-established trope – i.e., the “hyper-masculine” character with repressed (or not so repressed) homosexual urges. A Freudian could probably have a field day with Robert’s obsession with his father. His Oedipal complex is all messed up because his father is so powerful, so instead of wanting to kill/replace him (an impossibility) he falls in love with him…? And his love is tied up with pain (daily beatings for the whole pooping in the study incident), hence his sadism.
3. What is the role of Robert's mother in his childhood? How does she influence his later feelings about women?
He sleeps in her bed until he’s like 10 years old, right? But he stops when he meets Caroline. If I’m right and he really desires his father, then his mother is
4. What are some of Caroline’s notions concerning male/female relationships? How do you know this?
We only know what she tells Mary: she was a spoiled only child, a daddy’s girl, and she didn’t know anything about sex until she gets married.
5. Why does Caroline begin to enjoy the pain Robert inflicts on her during sex?
Given what she tells Mary, I would assume she is a masochist – she enjoys not just the pain but the negative feelings surrounding it, like guilt and shame.
6. Why does Robert keep pictures of Colin running across the head of his bed?
Because he’s obsessed with him…?
7. Why does Caroline never seem jealous of Robert's infatuation with Colin?
Because she knows what he has planned for him.
8. At the end, what does Colin's decision to die say about his character? Does this support or contradict what seemed evident about him before?
He does not “decide to die.” It’s not like he has a chance to say no. Again, as Jenna and Gail point out, these questions miss the point of the book, which is more concerned with the psychology of Mary and Colin.
Mod
1. Did his father's method of discipline turn Robert into a sexual masochist with Caroline? What else might have contributed to this?
I agree that Robert is not even a significant character and starting with this seems like missing the point. The background story simply gives a logical explanation for what follows.
2. How do you reconcile Robert's machismo with his blatant homosexual attraction to Colin?
I think Robert is simply a degraded human being and all things are on the table for him. He doesn't care about people; he cares about the power he can wield.
3. What is the role of Robert's mother in his childhood?
How does she influence his later feelings about women?
4. What are some of Caroline's notions concerning male/female relationships? How do you know this?
She did not provide a role model that would redeem women. Neither did the sisters.
5. Why does Caroline begin to enjoy the pain Robert inflicts on her during sex? I have no clue why she would stay in this relationship.
6. Why does Robert keep pictures of Colin running across the head of his bed? He is stalking Colin.
7. Why does Caroline never seem jealous of Robert's infatuation with Colin? I think perhaps she was afraid that she would be killed if she did not go along with Robert's infatuations.
8. At the end, what does Colin's decision to die say about his character? Does this support or contradict what seemed evident about him before? If he knew he was going to die then he died to save Mary and that makes him a better character. He also did swim out to save her at his own peril. So I guess Colin was one of the good men in the book.
Another one agreeing with Jenna’s summary above, but as far as it goes here are my answers…1.Did his father's method of discipline turn Robert into a sexual masochist with Caroline? What else might have contributed to this?
I think Robert is a sadist, rather than a masochist anyway. He enjoys inflicting pain. We have a backstory that may or may not be true. If true, the cruelty of his sisters may have also contributed to his desire to punish women. He does however idolise the firmness of his father and grandfather.
2. How do you reconcile Robert's machismo with his blatant homosexual attraction to Colin?
Robert is attracted to beautiful things, he is a kind of weird aesthete.
Colin is a beautiful man, like an angel we are told, and Robert wants to destroy the good and pure.
3. What is the role of Robert's mother in his childhood? How does she influence his later feelings about women?
He idolises her and sees her as a protector, even though she was nothing of the sort. She was totally subservient to his father.
4. What are some of Caroline's notions concerning male/female relationships? How do you know this?
We know what she tells Mary, and we see how she behaves around Robert. She is careful what she does and says.
5. Why does Caroline begin to enjoy the pain Robert inflicts on her during sex?
She feels the pain belongs to her, it is part of her complex emotional state along with guilt and shame.
6. Why does Robert keep pictures of Colin running across the head of his bed?
He is obsessed, and the pictures fuel the obsession.
7. Why does Caroline never seem jealous of Robert's infatuation with Colin?
Caroline is part of the plan, she is helping him to achieve his obsessive desires and he depends on her to keep Mary out of the way and drug her. She will be with him once Colin is gone.
8. At the end, what does Colin's decision to die say about his character? Does this support or contradict what seemed evident about him before?
As others have pointed out, It’s not really a decision to die, it’s a decision to give in to Robert, maybe to help Mary. The description of his facial expressions seem to suggest that he is not expecting what happens and he is bewildered and confused.
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Never no good. It gave us a spring board for our thoughts. The book however, that is no good.
Agree with Kristel -- we need questions to get us going!! Given the reviews of the book I've read, I don't think anyone will be interested, but there is a movie adaptation from 1990 with a lot of big names: "Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson are the prey, a beautiful British couple working on their relationship while on holiday in Venice; Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren are the hunters who draw them into the sinister web of their opulent, old-world palazzo."That is from the Criterion Collection description of the film. I am working my way through that list, so I'll eventually encounter the story again...
Mod
Oh, that sounds like a movie that would be very creepy.
I've been almost complete absent from participating in discussion lately, but this thread is what I appreciate about this group. I listened to this book and did not enjoy it, and the comments here affirm what I thought of it as well as giving me some other points to consider. The questions did seem odd to me in that I also found the focus of my thoughts much more on Colin and Mary as I listened. One of the the things about audio is that I can get involved in what I'm doing as I'm listening and completely lose track of how far through a story I am. I was shocked by the very abrupt ending of this one. I was expecting Colin's death, but I thought it would be slow and drawn out. As much as I did not enjoy it, I do have to appreciate the sense of dread McEwan created throughout.
Mod
Good point Daisy. He does create an atmosphere, doesn't he.
Questions contain spoilers.
1. Did his father's method of discipline turn Robert into a sexual masochist with Caroline? What else might have contributed to this?
2. How do you reconcile Robert's machismo with his blatant homosexual attraction to Colin?
3. What is the role of Robert's mother in his childhood? How does she influence his later feelings about women?
4. What are some of Caroline's notions concerning male/female relationships? How do you know this?
5. Why does Caroline begin to enjoy the pain Robert inflicts on her during sex?
6. Why does Robert keep pictures of Colin running across the head of his bed?
7. Why does Caroline never seem jealous of Robert's infatuation with Colin?
8. At the end, what does Colin's decision to die say about his character? Does this support or contradict what seemed evident about him before?