What does the novel reveal about the full spectrum of love and friendship? How does Virginia's perspective illuminate the diversity of human experience?

What does the novel reveal about the full spectrum of love and friendship? How does Virginia's perspective illuminate the diversity of human experience?

Love and friendship can take many different forms and, although we tend to think of sexuality as "straight", "gay", "bi" etc. Virginia's preference for asexuality was definitely a new wrinkle. It all comes down to "different strokes for different folks" as my Dad was fond of saying.

Interesting twist to the current climate of gender identification and sexual orientation tags. Virginia shows us how devotion can become as intense as sexuality. Loved her character.

I felt the revelation of Virginia’s character’s asexuality was both timely and a very interesting plot point. It broadened the context of relationships in the story when juxtaposed by Joey and Leena’s love affair. It sometimes seems that today we are all about labeling everything, including people, and categorizing everyone. I appreciated the sections that were included that depicted how uncle David and Virginia felt when people commented on their personal lives.

A good novel can trigger an epiphany or educate us on a naturally occurring phenomena we had thought little about. Here, Goldman succeeds with Virginia's character and her asexuality. I've never come across it in literature, but we probably could identify this behavioral trait in people we've known or know, though it allegedly occurs in only 1% of the population. I wonder if it could trend higher in this era where human interaction is diminishing among a significant proportion of the population, particularly among the young.

Carolina Moonset displays a diversity of types of love. Joey and Leela represent the most common form we think of for two people - romantic love that involves sex and leads to marriage. Ruby and Lawerence also shared that. Joey also represents familial love to his father and mother. He is there because he cares for his parents. There is a love of power in the Hammond family and a love of money from Gail. Thomas had an enduring love for Virginia despite her inability to show her love sexually. They cared for each other deeply and carried that feeling through their lives. Delphi and Trip shared a prohibited love. Society did not accept interracial marriages.