Mrs. Edwards

[Stephanie]

Reconciling Mrs. Edwards (Anna) with Mr. Edwards (Mark) is not easy. How can these two possibly be married? What does a man like Mark, who appears loving, forgiving, easygoing, and genuine think about a wife, who, for all appearances, seems to be shallow, cold, and phony? (These are of course, my impressions. Feel free to contradict me!)

[Librarian]

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Stephanie wrote:
Reconciling Mrs. Edwards (Anna) with Mr. Edwards (Mark) is not easy. How can these two possibly be married? What does a man like Mark, who appears loving, forgiving, easygoing, and genuine think about a wife, who, for all appearances, seems to be shallow, cold, and phony? (These are of course, my impressions. Feel free to contradict me!)

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I think if they were alike, it would be impossible for them to be married. It's Mark's loving, forgiving, easygoing nature that lets him stay married to Anna!
Librarian

[kiakar]

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Stephanie wrote:
Reconciling Mrs. Edwards (Anna) with Mr. Edwards (Mark) is not easy. How can these two possibly be married? What does a man like Mark, who appears loving, forgiving, easygoing, and genuine think about a wife, who, for all appearances, seems to be shallow, cold, and phony? (These are of course, my impressions. Feel free to contradict me!)

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Usually the opposites do meet and marry. And I have heard their marriages last a large portion of the time. Stephanie, you left out lazy! What is wrong with her. The husband was always cooking and washing dishes. Besides that, they are well off, arent they? Why not get a maid? I can't believe this book, they are always washing dishes. ha. Anna Edwards does seem to treat Syney cold, I wonder why? Why would she think she is better than Syndney? Oh! well!

[Stephanie]

Mark's loving and forgiving nature... would have been better spent on someone who reciprocated it! I just don't find much there to love in Anna. She's so crabby! There isn't enough back-story on her, either. She's too few faceted to have a husband who loves her like Mark appears to, a sweet girl like Julie and those two remarkably successful, single (old for that, weren't they?) sons. I can't make heads nor tails of it.

[kiakar]

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Stephanie wrote:
Mark's loving and forgiving nature... would have been better spent on someone who reciprocated it! I just don't find much there to love in Anna. She's so crabby! There isn't enough back-story on her, either. She's too few faceted to have a husband who loves her like Mark appears to, a sweet girl like Julie and those two remarkably successful, single (old for that, weren't they?) sons. I can't make heads nor tails of it.

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Yes, Anna was easy to hate but I felt some sympthany for her. What made her so depressed, and to me she was. It was something about Sydney right from the start that Anna picked up she didn't like and never really gave her a chance.

[Stephanie]

I wonder if it was merely prejudice- that she didn't like Sydney because of her Jewish half - that's what Sydney appeared to think, at least.  Or perhaps it was because everyone else in her family liked Sydney so well- perhaps Anna was feeling that she needed to compete.  Certainly Sydney didn't qualify as "hired help" - not on her way to an advanced degree, but Anna seemed to want to keep her in that place. 

[kiakar]

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Stephanie wrote:

I wonder if it was merely prejudice- that she didn't like Sydney because of her Jewish half - that's what Sydney appeared to think, at least.  Or perhaps it was because everyone else in her family liked Sydney so well- perhaps Anna was feeling that she needed to compete.  Certainly Sydney didn't qualify as "hired help" - not on her way to an advanced degree, but Anna seemed to want to keep her in that place. 

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You know I hadn't thought of prejudice, about the other half being Jewish.  You are right! It certainly could be that.

[IBIS]

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Stephanie wrote:
Reconciling Mrs. Edwards (Anna) with Mr. Edwards (Mark) is not easy. How can these two possibly be married? What does a man like Mark, who appears loving, forgiving, easygoing, and genuine think about a wife, who, for all appearances, seems to be shallow, cold, and phony? (These are of course, my impressions. Feel free to contradict me!)

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I've just started reading BODY SURFING, and am up to the first 50 pages. My immediate impression is that we're seeing eveyrthing through Sydney's perspective.... and it was clear from the beginning that Sydney has very strong negative feelings about Mrs. Edwards.

I'm sure that Mrs Edwards is all that: cold, shallow, phony.... but I felt that we werent' given much of a chance to see a more objective perspective of her.

I don't always know if the narrator has a personal axe to grind; but this one-sided-ness struck me from the beginning of the book.  More to come.

IBIS

[Stephanie]

IBIS,

You hit the nail on the head- one-sidedness is right!  I just felt that there was not enough back-story on a lot of these characters, Anna especially.  It was hard to reconcile Mark's love for her with the character we were given.  I suppose that's what we get in real life- narrow views and out-of-focus impressions, but color me selfish, I want more. 

[kiakar]

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Stephanie wrote:

IBIS,

You hit the nail on the head- one-sidedness is right!  I just felt that there was not enough back-story on a lot of these characters, Anna especially.  It was hard to reconcile Mark's love for her with the character we were given.  I suppose that's what we get in real life- narrow views and out-of-focus impressions, but color me selfish, I want more. 

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You are so right, Stephanie. But books written by a unknown narrater that we can't question what his or her knowledge is of the characters, we seem to believe more, don't you think so? But when one character of the story is telling it, you have in front of you one opinion. You question it more, but then you have to evaluate her or his opinions on what you read. What does Anna really do? WE follow her motives and characteristics through out the book to try and understand the truth.  And I do believe, like IBIS that Sydney is truly correct in her assumptions of Anna.

[IBIS]

POSSIBLE SPOILER What's interesting about Sydney's perspective is that her opinions become the reader's as well. After all, the readers only know what they're being told. As we proceed in the book, at one point, Sydney sneaks into the Edward's master bedroom. It's an eye opener for her. All her pre-conceptions of the marriage are turned upside down. There is a wonderful wedding picture of Anna and Mark where there is amazing love visible between them. Even the bed is not the usual queen-sized marriage bed. It's the smaller, full-sized bed with a cozier sleeping arrangment. This makes you wonder if we've misinterpreted their relationship. IBIS

[Librarian]

SPOILER  ALERT---------------SPOILER ALERT

Evan after finishing the book, I can't figure Mrs. Edwards out. Does she dislike Sydney from the beginning (Even though Sydney was hired to help fulfill Mrs. Edward's dream of getting her daughter Julie admitted to college) , because Sydney reminds her of Julie being slow? Maybe Mrs. Edwards' relationship with Mark and the boys was very loving. Maybe she was devastated when Julie was born  with possible brain damage. She herself may have had some kind of breakdown

 DEFINITE SPOILER HERE IF YOU HAVEN"T REACHED THE END.

She seems to mourn the death of Mr. Edwards. I don't think we can write her off as just shallow . We don't know enough about her and what made her become this way.

Librarian

Message Edited by Librarian on 02-16-2008 01:38 PM

[kiakar]

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IBIS wrote:
POSSIBLE SPOILER What's interesting about Sydney's perspective is that her opinions become the reader's as well. After all, the readers only know what they're being told. As we proceed in the book, at one point, Sydney sneaks into the Edward's master bedroom. It's an eye opener for her. All her pre-conceptions of the marriage are turned upside down. There is a wonderful wedding picture of Anna and Mark where there is amazing love visible between them. Even the bed is not the usual queen-sized marriage bed. It's the smaller, full-sized bed with a cozier sleeping arrangment. This makes you wonder if we've misinterpreted their relationship. IBIS

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Oh yes!  I caught that really fast! I think Sydney had a problem with Anna Edwards and Anna had a problem with Sydney. What I do not know, but since Sydney is the narracter it seems she doesn't see the love between the Edwards. Can you imagine sleeping that close to someone you didnt love. ugh!

[kiakar]

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Librarian wrote:

SPOILER  ALERT---------------SPOILER ALERT

Evan after finishing the book, I can't figure Mrs. Edwards out. Does she dislike Sydney from the beginning (Even though Sydney was hired to help fulfill Mrs. Edward's dream of getting her daughter Julie admitted to college) , because Sydney reminds her of Julie being slow? Maybe Mrs. Edwards' relationship with Mark and the boys was very loving. Maybe she was devastated when Julie was born  with possible brain damage. She herself may have had some kind of breakdown

 DEFINITE SPOILER HERE IF YOU HAVEN"T REACHED THE END.

She seems to mourn the death of Mr. Edwards. I don't think we can write her off as just shallow . We don't know enough about her and what made her become this way.

Librarian                                                                                                                            

I realized when I found out about the double bed that they did love one another, like I said, how could you sleep with someone in a small bed if you didn't love them. I just know I couldn't.

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[Book-Aholic]

Sometimes people dislike others because they wish to be like them but can't. I think Mrs. Edwards has a little jealousy towards Sydney.

[Stephanie]

It seems we're all saying the same thing- we just don't know what made Anna Edwards tick, why she didn't like Sydney, what it was about her that her husband loved, etc.  So, do we see this as a flaw in the novel, or could it be a device the author is using to some purpose?  If the latter, then to what end?