SUMMARY, by Josep Guiteras
Lynette was 30 years old, she was tall, with brown freckly
skin; she was original and eager, and she was wearing a wool coat that she had
found in a charity shop.
It was winter at 5 pm, after work, when she went into John
Lewis store to buy some things she needed. Leaving the stores and heading to
the corridors and subway platforms, a man making his way through the crowd hit
her, causing great pain in her ankle, so she decided to follow him to demand an
apology, but, when she touched him, she realized that it was Toby, her
ex-husband whom she had left 9 years ago, possibly because he wasn’t her type.
Toby was glad to see her, and Lynette saw that Toby had changed: he has gone
from being shy with the air of a country boy to seeing himself as a mundane and
prosperous man. Currently, he had created a new production company that brought
him a good income.
She had failed in the attempt to being a singer since
her voice did not meet the conditions. Now, she had a temporary job at the BBC:
in short, things were not going very well for her.
Toby told her that he had married Jaz, and they had
two daughters and that he and his wife were very happy. Lynette lied when she
said that she had a good boyfriend.
The bars were full of people, so Toby invited her to
his house in Queen’s Park because his wife and his daughters had gone to her
sister’s house. The house was located in a good area, the exterior appearance
of the house was perfect and, inside, it was spacious with an old and modern
decoration, and beautiful functional furniture. She realized that what the house
contained was Toby’s liking.
Toby thought that he had done well to take Lynette
home since in a bar he would have fallen into a flirtation under Lynette’s
control, while, in his family’s house, everything was more transparent.
QUESTIONS
-Bearing in mind Lynette’s physical appearance, what
can you say about her personality?
-Do you think Toby didn’t notice he struck somebody
going into the tube?
-The way you see it, what are Lynette’s reasons to
follow obstinately the man who struck her?
-In your opinion, did he know somebody was following
him?
-Can you always justify someone’s unconsciousness /
abstraction?
-What do you think were the reasons for their divorce?
Was one of them guiltier than the other?
-Did Toby prosper more than Lynette because of their
divorce?
-Her having ancestors from Sierra Leone, does it have
any relevance for her personality, for her divorce, for the story?
-She says she isn’t of the marrying kind nor the
mothering kind. Don’t you think these situations come from chances rather from
our will?
-Why did she lie about having a boyfriend and about
meeting some friends of her?
-According to you, why did he invite her to his house,
and why did she accept?
-To your mind, why didn’t she tell him about his
clashing her in the tube?
-“She was afraid that his loving kindness might
enclose her too entirely, like a sheath.” When can love and tenderness be
scary?
-She was also afraid of his subordination. Why?
-“Men always run their women together into a
continuum.” What does this sentence mean?
-Why does she think “Toby had opted for an easy,
chummier life”?
-What is the author’s purpose when she mentions the
car accident?
-Do you think that Lynette, when she wanted the
divorce, resorted to the old cliché of not being free to give herself to work
completely?
-What do you know about Dido’s Lament and about
Dido and Aeneas?
-What do you imagine is the relation between the title
and the story?
-Can you explain why she gave him her telephone
number? And why did he erase it immediately?
-She forgot a bag in Toby’s house and Toby hid it to
prevent his wife to see it. Did he still have any feelings for Lynette? What’s his
relation with Jaz like?
-Do you think the story has an open ending, or it’s definitely
finished?
VOCABULARY
John Lewis, fuming, funnelling, tartan, branded, hem, forging,
trudging, tearing, Oyster card, escalator, filled out, wizened, dilapidated, smug,
temp, temping, Sierra Leone, wincing, thrumming, children's teatime, devious, earnest,
taking in, scuffed, rocking horse, goaded, barley sugar, simpering, chummier, juggernaut,
ruddy, russet, guesting, accretions, Calpol, ranting, chalkboard
Dido's Lament, from the opera Dido and Aeneas, by Henry Purcell
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