She is regally disapproving of the vainglorious and venal, particularly when it derives from Hollywood. I tapped my clarinet case. You'll have a fine education before you pack your bags.' . . . There's more to male violence than fisticuffs and pummeling. On the other hand, Ms. Howard has contempt for Billy and James when they're cocky, preening, sexually swaggering.
Sex seems to be a folly that leaves people feeling worse, and more lonely, than before.
For Cath Bray and her pal Mary Boyle, sex, undertaken as rebellion or experiment, is more wound than love. Being good, however, at least according to the Irish Catholic code, doesn't necessarily lead to anything better. Sex and religion are different forms of flagellation. For all its themes concerning the ruin of time and the tears of things, there are still simple happinesses that come as grace, and there are difficult happinesses that come through working and loving unselfishly. Ms. Howard uses a couple of devices that seem to me less successful than others.