It is possible to sympathize with and condemn each of the book's dozen or so characters. Whether they elicit admiration or scorn from a given reader depends on the reader's own life experiences. There is no omniscient narrator, and no final judgment of the characters' actions and thoughts. At no point is the reader told what to think. The image is a perfect match to this story, not only because it conveys separation, but because the young woman is reading a letter.
Letters figure prominently in the novel.
This painting hangs in the Staatliche Gemaeldegalerie, Dresden, Germany. To see the cover, click here . I welcome comments from readers. As you can see from the other pages of my Web site, I lead a very busy life tutoring German and Spanish and teaching weight-training. Now I have some ideas for a sequel.