I think though the characters normalized it, the book didn’t. I think what Celestial said is supposed to be disturbing & wasn’t supposed to serve as a “justification” in that sense

@nataliembadi1033

4 жыл бұрын

I totally agree with you.This book tried to show how women have been conditioned to feel shame and guilt for making choices that centre themselves. WE feel so much guilt so much so that we feel obliged to pay debts that we don't owe anyone in the first place. Celestial's monologues are an effect of conditioning of women through the years. Always giving even when we dont have anything to give.

As an American, I can assure you that anytime we are portrayed in books, movies, television or any other form of mass media, the ideas and information being dispensed are totally inaccurate.

A character driven novel with characters who only do shitty things to each other? That seems to be the new ‘classic’. I hope the author at least makes it clear (somewhere in the text) treating people like this is wrong, especially people you are meant to care for. This sounds like a chore to read.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

It really doesn't unfortunately 🙈

@josephined.griffin7297

5 жыл бұрын

beause it's easier to blame In the authors note maybe? Idk or a preface. Sure maybe its not their job to be ‘preachy’ but in this day where ‘problematic’ keeps getting authors cancelled, I guess it’s better safe than sorry, especially when writing about a community which is often shown as disparaged and portrayed with stereotypes. Books teach us things and perhaps someone who found themselves in the position of the MCs, ‘thinks yeah, this is fine.’ I should expect this. I hope that makes sense

Is it really normalizing toxic relationships or is it telling what actually happens out here? Because I know a whole lotta toxic marriages. Tayari is just telling it. Doesn't mean she's normalizing it. Novels are not supposed to be instructive.

@jessicaridgeway675

3 жыл бұрын

Exactly, she overuses the word “normalize” and doesn’t even understand what she read.

So I haven't read this book, but based on what I know about it and hearing you talk about it, I think I have a sense of what the author is trying to do and I kind of want to read it. Let me say that I understand your response to things that happened, but I think they are supposed to be seen as toxic. I think this is a commentary on 1) the way that institutionalized racism, especially in the criminal justice system in America, has damaged families and interpersonal relationships in Black communities 2) the ways that toxic masculinity have been formed by the same system and social issues and how that impacts relationships 3) the ways that Black women, (and poor women because these things often intersect) sometimes feel like they have to put up with toxicity in their relationships because of having fewer options or might have sex that they don't really want from the threat of domestic violence or cultural ideas about the roles of women in that department. And of course all of that is problematic, but it seems like the author is trying to highlight the fact that it exists and how damaging it can be. Also, I have actually had someone in my past say what that character said, basically I could force you if I wanted to but I won't. Sadly, this is a reality a lot of women have dealt with.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

I see what you're saying here and I think these are all valid points, but I don't like how this absolves everyone from any and all personal responsibility. It's pointing a finger at society and the state and culture but never once at the individuals actually acting this way. I understand it's not as clear-cut as saying "just don't be an asshole", but I don't think that just because you were unfairly treated and even discriminated against you now have a free pass to act however you want. That's not to say that those aren't obviously horrible things to happen to you, but just that it does not excuse this type of behaviour. I think in criticizing the larger system this book failed to show that no matter what situation life puts you in, in the end the way you act and the choices you make are up to you and no one else. I honestly think this story could have benefited from going into more depth into these characters' lives to fully understand their motivations. We don't even really know what happened to Roy in prison. There wasn't really any time spent on fully understanding his struggle. In the end I think the book tried to do too many things at once while doing none of them to a satisfying extent.

@victrosia

5 жыл бұрын

ivymuse Same situation, haven’t read it myself, but I totally agree. This doesn’t come off as a YA “he’s bad but it’s only because he loves me so much” sort of trope, this comes off as two people in a shitty situation trying to figure it out without the tools to fix it. Say you generally know how a car works and you can only afford a pretty rundown car, you’re driving along, everything is fine-not great, but fine. There are moments where that clunking sound stops and the drive feels smoother and whenever things get really bad on the side of the road you remember those times, “It was good then... I can’t give up on this car; I’ve been with it so long.” You make excuses to yourself; I don’t have the time or the resources to look for a new car, I’ve sunk so much time into this car that it would just be a waste to let it go. Then one day you’re on the highway, it’s raining and hailing harder than you’ve ever seen and the car breaks down. You know deep down inside of yourself that this is different than the times before, but you keep turning the key in the ignition hoping it will come back to life like it has so many times before. But it doesn’t. Now you’re on the side of the road, soaking wet and being pelted with hail looking through your trunk for the tools to fix it just enough to get to the mechanic or even just to get home. But you don’t have the tools, and, if you’re being honest with yourself, probably don’t know how to use them or even what the problem is exactly. Celestial and Roy have probably spent their entire lives watching sitcoms where relationships are built up for an audience. They know what a relationship looks like, basically how it works, and fall in love with each other. They’ve been taught the values of toxic masculinity and gender norms through watching their parents or their grandparents, they’ve been taught that a man has needs and a woman is there to fulfill them. Now take in the fact that they are marginalized, those values were probably pushed even harder on them because following them is a way of trying to integrate into a society that tells them because of the color of their skin they don’t belong. They probably don’t make much money so even if Roy would swallow his pride enough to go, they wouldn’t have the money or time to see a therapist. Then he gets wrongfully convicted, sent away for five years. Celestial knows she loves him and that he loves her, feels a duty to be there for him as his wife. Celestial feels like she’s lucky to even have the relationship with Roy in the first place. She has been systematically broken down into thinking her worth is her body and Roy has been systematically “built up” to believe that men have needs and that he is in some way entitled to her, especially because she is his wife, his property. They know they’ve loved each other but they don’t feel it anymore and have no idea what to do. The time apart and the secretly rocky foundation they started with have pushed them apart and they are just trying desperately to go back to a life they never had. Celestial feels guilty for falling in love with her husband’s friend, Roy is devastated that his life before jail no longer exists. Celestial was trained to be subservient, as a lot if not all of women are. The guilt and shame and society’s messaging are all telling her that she is wrong to have abandoned her husband-the husband she is lucky to have, the husband who has been through so much, the husband who has stuck by her through her tough times. Roy was trained to keep his emotions in. Showing pain is weak. Showing sadness is weak. Women are the weak ones, not men and being a woman is the worst thing a man can be. But after a while, keeping those emotions in has to bubble up. He isn’t angry with her, he isn’t a violent person but he doesn’t know any other way to express himself except through anger at this point. He’s been let down by a system that was actually against him the entire time, his trust has been betrayed by his friend and his wife. He’s devastated. He knows, subconsciously, that he isn’t angry, and he knows that he’s never hurt a woman in his life before. He knows who he is deep down and this anger changing his identity scares him. He tries to justify it away because he doesn’t want to face the fact that his marriage is ending, his wife is no longer in love with him, and that even though neither of them have done anything to “deserve” this that it isn’t going back to normal again. Celestial and Roy are good people, possibly great people, but they were never given the tools or the proper instructions to be in a healthy relationship. They are playing house, going through the motions of what they’ve seen before and trying to make it work without a full picture of what marriage really is. Sitcoms don’t show conflict resolution, parents don’t tell their kids about healthy sex lives, friends don’t share the worst about their lives because they also think they are alone in the pain. No one is reaching out to each other and properly teaching each other how to be married so Celestial and Roy are working with scraps. This novel isn’t romanticizing their relationship, it’s showing a realistic picture of how people act and justify things to themselves as things fall apart for a couple with dramatically wrong ideas for what a relationship should be. Nowadays we are lucky to see sex and relationships be uncovered and spoken about in the open air. We are lucky to live in a time that is finally criticizing the type of society that produces this behavior. This novel is doing exactly that, showing an uncompromising picture of how following society’s lead in life can turn out. It is fantastic that you feel angry at this. You should feel angry because men and women, still even now, follow the same societal scripts that Roy and Celestial do. These relationships are horrible, shouldn’t be normalized, and are being shown for the disgusting reality they are. I think the author might have fallen in the gap between showcasing this relationship for commentary and showcasing it for entertainment. The author, I believe, was trying to make commentary, but didn’t criticize it enough within the text to push that message across.

@NylaTheWolf

4 жыл бұрын

I'm sure the author had good intentions, but...man was it executed poorly...

dude that diet example cracked me up

I'm fuming with anger just by listening to you describing this book. I always wanted to read it because of all the hypes, now I'm glad I didn't!

@jessicaridgeway675

3 жыл бұрын

I believe she missed the entire point of the book and what the author wanted to showcase. She completely dismisses the major themes in this story. The author simply wanted to highlight the gender roles and dysfunction in the African American community. You may want to read other reviews and listen to other discussions. The title of the book is a play on words because people look at American marriages as being perfect and not splitting up, rather to work out differences.

This is my first video of you, and subscribed right away. What an incredible review!

I disagree with the notion that it is a failing of the book if it doesn't take a stance on morality. I think of the author as the impartial witness. He's here to tell and recall the story like it is. Calling out the actions of the characters into question is for the reader to judge, not the author. You can't take points off of the book for telling the story without delivering a message or teaching a moral.

It's called An American Marriage and the marriage is terrible and problematic. The writer isn't trying to say that this is okay at all. The characters are problematic on purpose and probably based on something from the writers life to some extent, inspired by some event or the essence of an event. It seems like you totally missed the point

@itsjuliam

3 жыл бұрын

💯 she totally missed the point

I agree with your analysis. I’m reading this for a book club and was basically going to say that I didn’t believe Roy was innocent of the crime because most of his actions were those of an abuser. (Even his mother asked for assurances.) After listening to you I have even more to add. By the way, I have been married for 46 years.

So well said!!! And honestly, just an observation most books which are written on these topics have self help pages of where to get help from domestic violence, sexual assault and rape in the back of the book making it very crystal clear this is absolutely not okay.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

Yes!! Good point! Even that would have been something at least!

While I agree that Roy and celestial and even Andre exhibit behavior that is questionable and problematic, I see it as a bit more nuanced then that. Roy has hope against his better instincts that his wife really loves him still. And that he still has it. His marriage. His old fabulous life. Celestial feels guilty for not being able to be there In a true ride or die relationship with Roy. And Andre feels conflicted over his role in all of this as well. Thanks for sharing!

Thank god someone finally said it. ☕️ 👏🏻

If you read, please read all the way through.I had written something that was like 2000 words and I deleted it all. I haven't read the book yet, but allow me to illuminate some things. I advise looking up the Dilute model of sexual violence, the most common model used in the US. But let me point something out that is a personal opinion. I've been married for more than 11 years. A marriage is a contract and a promise(at least to me). If you are going to leave a person, end the contract and move on. This is something that is a big deal to me. Should I ever do something or get accused and convicted of something stupid to land in prison, I would hope my wife would just divorce me if she wouldn't want me back.As far as Roy being manipulative, hell yes. He is driven by his ego. It explains his number collecting and the sex before Andre returns. He doesn't care about her, its all about him. There are plenty of people like this including one of my mom's husbands back in the late 80s. It is entirely about ego. This is not a normal relationship, but there are plenty of relationships like this. Sadly many women I've seen behave like this. It allows them to justify staying with a piece of shit. In my mom's case, it was to protect her children. In Celeste's case, it comes off as indecisiveness. She comes off as someone who lets the world makes the choice, instead of making the choice.

Great video!

Your intro is what made me like this video before even watching the full thing..

Prison or not prison, Roy was such an asshole in the first place. All the characters were so imprisoned in their genders (except Andre maybe), which made them cliché and not interesting at all. I was happy to find your review as this book made me angry too haha :D. Such a backward vision of what a marriage should be, of what a man and a woman should be, I just LOST IT.

"Not all men but like, yes all men" - the book.

I was so furious after reading this book..I jumped to KZread after finishing to see what others think about this book..how fucked up Roy is..and thank God at least you think same about this book...last few pages were so hard to read..I wanted to throw the book..how is it so popular.

OMG thank you for saving me from this book!

@jessicaridgeway675

3 жыл бұрын

Please don’t take her word for it. She leaves out a lot of the backstory.

But you are saying that book normalizes something... And I think it did not. Characters normalize or try to justify those situations and that is all. If you have serial killer in a book and he thinks in it "hahaha, love killing people!" it doesn't normalize killing people.

That sexual assault scene is obviously unhealthy, but it truly happens among some groups of Christians (I've literally seen excerpts from videos by Christian channels that say that women are obliged to do this). The terrible thing is: it's women saying and believing this. My question: are the mc's in this book any form of Christian? If you can't believe this, check the backlog of the channel Mr. Atheist (I don't want to promote channels that promote this terrible behavior, but I will do with channels criticizing it).

@nocturnus009

5 жыл бұрын

It is a toxic reality in America, unfortunately the discussion ignited by this book will be one step towards healing [resolving] the problem.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

I've watched some of Mr Atheist's videos before, the things some Christians actually believe in are atrocious, but I would consider myself a Christian as well and I've never even so much as come into contact with this kind of toxic thinking. Religion isn't really a topic in the book, it honestly is quite unclear where their beliefs come from. I can only imagine it's the parents since honestly, they don't give them the best advice and generally dont seem to have the healthiest relationships either 😅 i guess that's what it boils down to right, we emulate the kinds of relationships we grow up around and tend to consider that normal or even desirable.

@ammalyrical5646

5 жыл бұрын

@@ivymuse how you built relationships is rooted in what your parents do, but I think it's more complex than only your home life as a child. I think you not believing that stuff and blindly following it has in part to do with living in Europe. I don't know how it goes on in Austria, but where I live about 50% of the people isn't religious and a lot of the religious people don't shove it in your face. It's mostly like: live and let live

@lisah8438

3 жыл бұрын

@@ammalyrical5646 Yeah I grew up Christian and I never was taught that. My mom taught me to be more independent actually. I want to fall in love and get married one day but I want more of a equal partnership. Though to some it might sound unromantic. Even though I consider myself a Christian.

@ammalyrical5646

3 жыл бұрын

@@lisah8438 Naah. You sound like a nice person. It's not all Christians doing this, but it happens. I saw a docu once where a girl was prevented from going to the police to report systematic rape (her father is a disgusting human being) because their church needed to keep up their clean image. I grew up in a Christian environment as well and my mother never told me to be submissive (neither did my grandmas for that matter nor the men). My dad is an atheist so he would not really hold ancient Christian values. As long as you do what you want and look for the partner you want you can find this romantic (I'm not necessarily the most romantic person atm, so I'm not gonna say it's not. Years ago a teacher of mine wanted to stay engaged for a long time since he though engagements are romantic and the actual marrying isn't).

Side-pieces probably don't know they are equated to 🍫🍰, [5:18] but Okay... 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️ I think gaslighting is something that many are going to need to discuss in America because we cannot allow another political uprising of the likes we are currently living through. So there are some merits to a book like this moving the discussion forward. 19:40 & 21:20 it is not right, but we live in a world where people use sex to medicate [numb the pain away] & as medication. Another issue we are better off discussing. This is the only way we can move forward. As toxic as this is on the page, this is the reality of many. Unfortunately some people live in a world that would make some areas of YA Fantasy look tame. Neil Gaiman cemented at SXSW how writing for fantasy is easier than non-fiction because the connections made to connect fantasy with the prose for the audience is profoundly harder. As is the case here, the visceral connections we make with the written word is something that must be done with care. Wait... MORE CHOCOLATE 31:26 🍫 There are toxic people out there. For better or worse some are a product of the prison industrial complex. They are a reality people have to deal with when they return to society. It is not ideal. But it is the reality people need to work around. There are no easy answers here. The only way we are going to get to the fix is opening the dialogue.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

See I wish this book had actually discussed these issue instead of just putting it out there. While that can also be valuable in some contexts I think it would have at least benefited from a more critical viewpoint from one of the other characters. I guess I just don't understand why you would write a book about something so horrible and never even make any semblance of an effort to call it our for what it is.

@nocturnus009

5 жыл бұрын

@@ivymuse keep in mind whom you are in dialogue with: I'm the guy that compared AuthorTube to differential calculus & BookTube to Integral calculus. The community is vital because contributors keep connecting the book to our reality. I chose to see book discussions as an analog to the area under the curve where the curve is the author's algorithmic forecast of the world they built. The axis under the curve is our reality. When done well, Booktubers make the connection between our world & the complex thoughts in the novel.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

@@nocturnus009 Charles Smith i think you're too smart for me to have a fitting reply to that 😂😂 but it does sounds right to me ;)

@nocturnus009

5 жыл бұрын

@@ivymuse don't know if your Uni or Library has Kanopy streaming, but I burned one of my monthly play credits on Babygirl (2012) this week. It's about as rough as this An American Marriage. It is set in the Bronx, NY & needs to be in the discussion. Think reverse Lolita & not idealized. Have a great weekend.

I agree that it was toxic but I don't think that it was normalized. I didn't think the book was great either.

This girl is incredibly bad at understanding a plot and characters. Has her own agenda and uses this book to justify her arguments. Poor review from her and her fake tears topped it off.

I've finished this book about two weeks ago and I'm still so mad!!!

I mean...it is literature. Literatures purpose is not to normalise anything, most of its purpose is escapism and enjoyment. Many conteporany and romance books have conflicts and hard subjects if they would all be perfect, ther ewould be no conflict and no purpose of the books. It's not like thrillers normalise killers etc. I cannot really agree with this. It is oke to not like a book but i have such a pet peeve when people thing books shouldnt show problematic stuffs.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

I thought I made it clear in the video: I have no problem with the portrayal of this itself, it's the way it is discussed (or I should say, not discussed) within the story. In a thriller for example it's pretty obvious that killing people is wrong based on the fact that people react negatively to it and the culprit is punished for their actions. The problem here is that none of the characters question the unhealthy behavior and Roy himself never faces any consequences for it. Celestial doesn't even end the relationship over it. That's what normalizing something means: making it seem normal and commonplace and therefore implicitly okay, and that definitely happens here.

@isachan2252

5 жыл бұрын

@@ivymuse i did not read the book, i cannot talk about it but i know that thing happens in romance books or similar type of books and i think not all books are forced to show something that is wrong as wrong. I mean, we all know is wrong, books not always have to "teach us" or show us what is wrong. If a book is about a toxic relation and none reacts in any way to it, c'est la vie, i think it's fine to treat a subjects how you want as author. Of course as a reader you can not like it but saying books like this try to "normalise" wrong thing is a big too far. Thats my thought tho.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

I guess we can agree to disagree :)

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

@Ashlie the question isn't whether or not it exists but whether or not it should be represented in literature in a way that makes it look okay. It might be "normal" in that it occurs frequently but it's not normal in the sense of healthy. I feel like I'm repeating myself constantly but I'll say it again: I have no issue with the book depicting this type of relationship dynamic. But you should question it within the book in some way and not let it stand completely on its own. Not necessarily the affected characters themselves but some aspect of the book should do this in my opinion. Or at least include resources in the back people who do experience this can turn to. There's even a section with discussion questions at the end that don't so much as mention domestic violence or abusive relationship or how we can strive as a society to work towards eradicating such dynamics. That's where my issues lie.

The only thing I want to put in your mind that I think you could rephrase in the future (I don't really think an apology or anythign is necessary, it's just more info for you to have) is just that monogamy and marriage aren't really the same thing if the people in the marriage both agree it isn't. You said at one point, just don't get married if monogamy isn't something you're willing to do and I think cases where the married couple aren't poly or in an open relationship that's true but just from my perspective and experience I can't really fathom being in love with just one person, it's just the same as you wouldn't expect a gay man to marry a woman. Other than that, the sexual assault portion at around 19 minutes just sounds like how a lot of women I know (myself included) have had and been forced to react to sexual coersion (rape). I haven't gotten to the end of your video yet but I doubt that it is resolved in a meaningful way. I have thought some of the same things in the past that you highlight. That you are obligated because you are married/ in a relationship to give the other person sex, or let them take it. It's a tragic and common occurance. I agree with you that it shouldn't be normalized, but I think resolution could have occured and given women suffering in this same posistion reading the book a light at the end of the tunnel.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

You're right of course, I really was just referring to marriage in this particular case. I'm totally fine with people being in whatever kind of relationship works for them, as long as it truly is what both people want. In this situation it was just clear to me that Celestial was not okay with her husband seeing other women and since I assume he knew that he wasn't going to be able to not cheat he should have not gotten married to her. I absolutely agree that the abusive situation in this book should have been resolved in some way. I was so upset that it wasn't even acknowledged as such in the book.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

I'm also very sorry that you had to go through something like this. I honestly couldn't even imagine what that must be like. Much love 💗

I had all the same reactions as you did. I hated this book and was honestly angry after I finished it that this book was getting so much praise. I hated all the characters and the plot was super lacking imo.

Sorry you didn't like the book, but honestly I couldn't disagree more with your points While yes, celestial and roy didn't have the healthiest of relationships, I don't think there was any "normalisation" of the nature of their relationship at all. The author didn't indicate that this was a normal relationship or that they condoned the actions of those involved. I Don't think a book should be rated down because you didn't think they were a perfect couple. Also sweeping statements about a whole country based on one book... not here for that, sorry.

@ivymuse

5 жыл бұрын

I actually think that not denouncing something is implicitly condoning it, especially when you are the one writing a book that explicitly deals with that exact issue. So no, she never went out and said THIS IS HEALTHY, but she also never implied the opposite, seeing how the characters behaving badly were never even remotely punished for this behaviour, in fact they were actually rewarded for it. Also I'm not rating the book down because they weren't a perfect couple. That's way over-simplifying the issue here. And where am I making sweeping statements about a country? If you're referring to the bit at the very beginning, that was clearly sarcarsm.

Ok I actually witnessed something similar to the tennis racket thing at my apartment. A guy was going around the parking lot yelling and hitting random cars with a snow shovel because he just got out of jail and his family didn’t love him anymore (in his opinion at least) he was trying to get someone to call the cops on him (he yelled at me as much when I asked what the fuck his problem was after he hit my roommates car) and he wanted to go back to jail and may have been driven to suicide by cop if his sister didn’t talk him down. So no, its not a normal reaction. Its a desperate reaction done in despair and anger.

I looked up the book and it seems like characters are African American. See, in African American and Black culture there is this term called struggle love and ride or die. Meaning you stay in that relationship no matter what. Regardless on how many times he or she cheats on you or hurts you. Mentally and maybe physically. I have not read this book and I don't know if it is for it or against it but it is interesting. There are youtube channels like Chrissie and other black youtubers that talk about this problem.

Normalisation would be to say the relationship conflicts that the author writes about weren't what a portion of couples experience. It's not an educative book on how to have a marriage that lasts forever its fictional literature . I also feel you're out of your depth on this review although I respect that you are an individual with the right to express your opinions. As far as relating to what you say , I can't as I feel the characters are too complex for your take on them .

Ok got to the end of your video. This book sounds seriously fucked up. Why do people like this I wonder

This is exactly what I expect to happen when millennials review books theyre not equipped to understanding

@jessicaridgeway675

3 жыл бұрын

Agreed! She has no clue what she is talking about!

@AD-qq9bk

3 жыл бұрын

I haven't read this book, so I don't know if I would agree with her, but your way of thinking isn't exactly great or kind. When I read Virginia Wolf or Hemingway, I understand them despite never having experienced a war. Because they were great writers. Looking down someone because of their age is extremely arrogant.

@AD-qq9bk

3 жыл бұрын

@BeebsBonanza Young people can be immature. It doesn't mean they can't understand anything.And being old doesn't automatically mean wisdom. An other point is that this book is recently written, so it should be expected that many of it's readers will be millenials. Also in my opinion a talented writer should be able to communicate a subject even to people who normally do not relate due to different life experiences. And I will be arrogant by telling you that because I m not an American I couldn't care less about Obama or Oprah. They are not exactly my go to people for inspiration. Of course not having read the book I have no opinion about it myself. It could be great and she could really misunderstood it, but that isn't a crime.

Jesus this book sounds fucked up.

This sounds like absolute garbage, thank you for this review.

@jessicaridgeway675

3 жыл бұрын

Her review is actually garbage.

This book is very bad. The story is boring and has no merit. This became popular because it was featured in Oprah's book club. I think she featured this book because of the black author and because its about black characters, nothing else. I did not like anything about this book. I did not like it from start to end. Whoever wants to read this book and did not yet should not waste his time. When I finished reading this book I have decided not to pick any other book from Oprah's book club because I don't trust it anymore.

@jessicaridgeway675

3 жыл бұрын

You must understand what the author’s purpose was. This book is reflection of a lot of dysfunctional relationships that happen in African American culture and how it affects all parties involved. I don’t think that Jones tried to normalize bad relationships, nor does she want anyone to feel sorry for Roy. An author’s responsibility is not to give any type of instruction of resolution to issues. It’s a novel, not an instruction manual. I think people have to understand the cultural differences and why the characters behave a certain way. This review showcased her anger because she clearly had no idea what was going on. I would not trust just one person’s opinion without reading it myself. She literally on discussed the ending of the book.

Stop trying to put your own happiness over your duty to society and to God.