A book a day: Phillip Lopate: Second marriage

Original language: English

Original title: Eleanoro The Second Marriage

Translation: Miguel Temprano García

Year of publication: 2008

Valuation: Disappointing

It is inevitable, I return again to the titles. Because, to be honest, Second matrimony It sounds like you should run away and not stop, stale and boring. But hey, Bergman also made some films under similar labels and it wasn’t completely bad, that’s what Bergman was for. At first it seems clear that Phillip Lopate is going to explore similar terrain, so, being a very short book, we are not going to lose much either.

Indeed, we have a couple made up of Frank y Eleanor, who are living their second marital experience, I am not sure if it is the second of the two or just of him. They have several grown children and look like well-to-do people. After receiving a visit from one of these kids, they organize a dinner with friends that has a somewhat surprising transgenerational nature: I don’t know if it is normal in the United States to have adult dinners to which the children also attend, but it seems to me that around here It is not very frequent. The event is resolved with the design of the menu (always the responsibility of the woman, you have to look at North American society), the expected insipid talks, some fleeting dalliance, and a film session that, preceded by somewhat pedantic comments, leads to a film by Chaplin (hum, hum). A dessert that seems to me only for movie buffs or very cultured people. Or this way.

But what is really relevant, what forms the core of the story is the couple, the marriage itself. Love and heartbreak, infidelities, connection, respect, independence, compromise and how far. That is, everything that makes up coexistence and a relationship that lasts over time, which are things that, as we know, are not easy. One feels a certain way, another cannot stand some things, maybe there are some that must be accepted and others that must not be accepted, communication is not always as it should be and sometimes it is not good to talk about everything, perceptions change and desires are no longer shared. , or maybe not. Nothing new, because there are certainly situations that are universal and have been throughout the centuries.

What is the problem, then? Well, to bring these themes to a book it is not enough to propose scenarios that may be of some interest, you have to put something different on paper that makes reading an experience that is at least somewhat above the coffee chat or the TV movie. after-dinner And it is impossible to deny that Second matrimony It is completely shipwrecked: not only does it not contribute anything new at all, but it is also a tostón whose only virtue is its brevity. Due to the context, it could be a play, yes, deadly boring and without spark, with stuffy characters incapable of arousing interest or emotion, or it could be a moderately melodramatic film that would accompany an involuntary weekend nap on the couch.

Irrelevant, sleepy and with a slight pretentious tone, a real gem. I have no idea why this ended up on my reading list, but believe me, I’ve had much better ideas.