The Infatuations Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Javier Marías and our BookBrowse Review of The Infatuations.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Over the period of a few years, María has spent part of every morning watching a married man and woman in a neighborhood café. She is drawn to them because of their seeming happiness, "as if they provided me with a vision of an orderly or. . . harmonious world" (4). Is this a strange thing to do? What does it reveal about María?
   


2. The "Perfect Couple," as María calls Miguel and Luisa, is abruptly severed when a homeless man stabs Miguel to death in a seemingly unmotivated attack. When María learns that Miguel was killed on the same day she last saw him, she realizes that "his wife and I had said goodbye to him at the same time, she with her lips and I with my eyes only" (30). What do you think of María's reaction to the murder? Is María in love with Miguel?
   


3. When María visits Luisa, both speculate on what Miguel might have been thinking as he was being stabbed and as he lay dying (50-51). María's projection of Miguel's state of mind proceeds in single sentence of more than two pages in length (52-54). What role does the imagination—especially imagining the thoughts or experiences of others—play in this novel? Why do you think the novel is occupied with questions about different possible paths and outcomes?
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.