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Evening in Paradise


"Berlin's new book is a marvel, filled with deeply touching stories about lives ...
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Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

Created: 11/04/19

Replies: 16

Posted Nov. 04, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3442

Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?


Posted Nov. 30, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
djcminor

Join Date: 03/14/19

Posts: 208

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

After reading about the author, I wonder if her depictions of unfaithful partners reflects her own life and experiences. The takeaway is that people are unreliable if one believes what the author shows.


Posted Nov. 30, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
lesleyf

Join Date: 05/14/11

Posts: 119

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

That they are difficult and not easy to maintain. That there is never enough real sharing and communication because those are just words and we haven't taught ourselves or each other how to do the real thing.


Posted Nov. 30, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Maggie

Join Date: 01/01/16

Posts: 434

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

I think she was saying that she did not really believe in long romantic relationships.


Posted Dec. 01, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
peggyt

Join Date: 08/10/17

Posts: 215

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

I agree that she did not expect relationships to be enduring or faithful. Maybe that was from seeing her parents behavior or from her own relationships or both.


Posted Dec. 03, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
carolf

Join Date: 07/10/14

Posts: 72

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

I doubt there are relationships that have not experienced some sort of test. Perhaps her experience has been that when things become hard it is just easier to leave than to work things out. That is a sad way to go through life but maybe it was her way.


Posted Dec. 03, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
katherinep

Join Date: 07/16/14

Posts: 374

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

There are people who NEED to be married to justify their relationships and so, though the relationship may not last--either because one or the other also believes when things aren't going the way they want, and they leave, or they legitimately grow apart--when it ends and another begins, it must be as a married couple. Serial marriages result and I think she was like this. She needed the acceptable condition of marriage but she did not subscribe to working too hard to stay that way and when a buddy of her husband's looked attractive enough, then she was ready to move in with him. Extremely immature attitude I would say.


Posted Dec. 04, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
djcminor

Join Date: 03/14/19

Posts: 208

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

Because Lucia Berlin had a "lifelong problem with alcoholism," she must have found it difficult to sustain long-term relationships herself. That fact is then reflected in her writings. She has four sons, but I was unable to discover whether they all had different fathers.


Posted Dec. 05, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
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skagitgrits

Join Date: 02/24/17

Posts: 64

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

This theme sadly reflected the author's experiences with relationships and her disillusion with "love" and marriage.


Posted Dec. 05, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Lole

Join Date: 11/30/19

Posts: 25

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

Many of her women characters are "in love" but the end result for them shows that love to be shallow or one-sided. In her life Berlin seemed to often be in a crowd of artists, where love may have felt free and temporary, sometimes confused with sexual attraction. So she wrote about what was familiar to her.


Posted Dec. 09, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
xandrabk

Join Date: 04/16/19

Posts: 44

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

After learning more about the author's personal life, I am thinking that she was basing the stories on how she views marriages. In her own life, she married several times, which could've meant that she believed in the institution but they turned out to be otherwise. Or, it could've been her who had commitment issues.


Posted Dec. 09, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
dorinned

Join Date: 10/13/14

Posts: 176

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

Berlin's own life - three failed marriages, alcoholism, moving to several different parts of the U.S. and Mexico - is reflected in her stories. I felt that some of the stories were relating her personal experiences in one way or another.


Posted Dec. 10, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
viquig

Join Date: 06/25/14

Posts: 82

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

I think she is saying that most relationships are not sustainable for long periods of time. People change and when they change they meet other individuals who spark new romantic relationships.


Posted Dec. 11, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
scgirl

Join Date: 06/05/18

Posts: 245

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

I found that aspect of her stories very cynical and definitely reflects her own inability to sustain a relationship. I got the impression that romantic relationships and marriage were illusions to her and that her reality was in her children and her surroundings.


Posted Dec. 12, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
dianaps

Join Date: 05/29/15

Posts: 460

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

Marriage was not her cup of tea!


Posted Dec. 16, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Elizabeth Marie

Join Date: 05/26/18

Posts: 77

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

Berlin seems to see relationships, including marriage, as temporary and unfulfilling. Her characters often look to their partners to fulfill needs and play roles that are not possible for them. In the beginning of the relationship the flaws are overlooked, but over time the flaws become untenable.


Posted Dec. 18, 2019 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
rivkahh

Join Date: 05/04/15

Posts: 35

RE: Throughout the book, many of the men and women depicted are unfaithful to their partners. What do you think the author is saying about romantic relationships and marriage?

She certainly displays a jaundiced view of romantic relationships (and particularly marriage) throughout her stories. I agree with other posts; she clearly must have suffered in her own relationships, and perhaps didn't have many positive examples of adult relationships during her childhood.


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