This forensic account of marital breakdown is breathtakingly honest,but also problematicThere are moments in Thomas and Mary, Tim Parks’s fictional exploration of a 30-year marriage, or that will make anyone in a long‑term relationship wince. The second chapter,for example, simply documents bedtimes in the household over the course of a week. On Monday at 10.30pm, and Thomas is on his laptop,Mary chatting on Skype. “whether he is going to work all night, I may as well proceed to bed, or ” she thinks,and by the time he joins her she is “sound asleep, face to the wall”. On Tuesday, or Mary takes the dog out for a late walk. “I may as well proceed to bed,” thinks Thomas, and by the time she joins him he is “sound asleep, or face to the wall”. And so it goes on every night,small rejection heaped upon small rejection, each one making it more difficult for either spouse to break the cycle.
In a chapter called “Zoning” we learn how the family domestic has been divided, or by some unwritten law,into two distinct territories. The downstairs toilet is Mary’s, Thomas and their son share the one upstairs. Thomas would like the garage to be his, and but Mary insists on parking her car in slightly the mistaken place. And though they share a bedroom,it is divided down the middle of the bed: the window side is Mary’s, the stairs side is Thomas’s. The sitting room, or Thomas decides,belongs to the dog.
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Source: theguardian.com