Is Claire's and Dylan's relationship healthy?

Right from the beginning to the very end of the book, it's very evident that Claire is not happy by being in a relationship with Daryl. She's always complaining about him coming home late and just the way she talked about him, it gave me the impression that she doesn't really know why shes in this relationship. There doesn't seem to be any love between them. It seems like they hardly talk-- it doesn't even seem like he's content with her because he's always going out to strip clubs to get lap dances. Claire is not happy that he gets lap dances but she also never brings it up with him. Why is she staying in this relationship with him? It seems like there are more negatives than there are positives. There must be an important reason as to why she's with him. Do you think she really loves him or do you think that shes just with him because shes scared she wont find anyone else? Does he love her? If he does then why does he go out to strip clubs when he has a girlfriend?

Did Michael Deane have the right to lie to Dee about her having cancer?

Ok, so i get it. Michael Deane didn't want Dee to be in the movie so he sent her off to a remote fishing island. He told the doctor to lie to her and tell her that she had stomach cancer and that she had to go to Switzerland so that she can get cured. It scared Dee so much and although she got to meet Pasquale, it was a complete waste of time for her and caused unnecessary stress that she could have easily avoided. If Michael had just been straight up and told her that he didn't want her to be in the movie, wouldn't you think that this would have been a better option for both of them. For Michael, because he didn't have to feel guilty and for Dee so she could have spent that time doing something that she liked.

What does this say about Michael's character? It seems to me that he really doesn't respect anyone else's opinion except for himself. Was it fair what he did? How would you respond/take this if you were in Dee's position? Or do you support Michael and sympathize with him because you think that this was the best choice?

Thoughts on Dee Moray and Pasquale's relationship

During Dee's stay in Italy with Pasquale, they get to know each other really well. In the beginning, Pasquale was interested in Dee simply because she was an american and she looked beautiful. I knew that because this is a fictitious book, they would end up falling in love. But the fact that this book started out talking about Dee's arrival to Italy, and how Pasquale was attracted to her in the beginning just by her looks gave me the impression that this may work out in the book, but in real life, it doesn't usually happen this way.

As I kept reading, my impressions changed. "The man didn't come that day, either. And as much as he wanted to keep Dee Moray for himself, Pasquale began to get angry. What kind of man sent a sick woman to a remote fishing village and then left her there? He thought of going to La Spezia and using a phone to call the Grand Hotel, but he wanted to look this bastard in his cold eye (Walter 110)" The fact that even though he loved spending time with Dee, it got him really worked up that nobody came to get her so that she could see the doctor. Throughout the book, the love between them started to actually have a healthy basis and this was something that I didn't expect but was happy about because it made it more relatable and less fictitious.

Are Unexpected things Better?

In the book there are beautiful places/thing that are "undiscovered"(not many people know of about them).This includes the pillbox bunker paintings, Lydia's play, and Porto Vergogna. All of these things were found in an unexpected places; the play in a local theater in Sandpoint Idaho, the paintings hidden in the pillbox, and Porto Vergogna a small town in Italy.

"This wasn't what Claire was expecting(comunity theater? in Idaho) when they arrived in Sandpoint, a funky Old West ski town on the shores of this huge mountain lake. With no time to check into their hotel, the investigator took them strait to the Panida Theater, its lovely vertical descending sign marking a quaint store front in the small L-shaped downtown, classic old box opening into a Deco theater-too big for this small, personal play, but an impressive room nonetheless,"(Walter 295)

Claire is enamored by Lydia's play and the venue in Sandpoint. I think part of the reason for this is because she didn't expect much and the surprise also added to her excitement.

"At first, it seemed like the saddest thing to me," she said, "that no one would ever see these paintings. But then I got to thinking: What if you tried to take this wall and put it in a Gallery somewhere? I would simply be five faded paintings in a Gallery. And that's when I realized perhaps they're only remarkable because they are here."(Walter 273)

Dee explains that the paintings were so beautiful because of  the setting that surrounded them. To me there is something so cool about journeying into the woods to find a hiding place with unknown paintings. It reminds me of my  childhood dreams of discovering buried treasure in my backyard.That's why I think people like  unexpected surprises; they are surreal, like dreams.

We Love Who We Love

After watching the Front Man, Claire found herself thinking about her relationship with Daryl. Throughout the entire story she had complained about how he was hopeless and never even attempted to make their relationship work. "Claire, too, finds herself drawn inward by what she's just seen. Earlier, she told Shane that her relationship with Daryl was "hopeless." Now she realizes that throughout the play she was thinking of Daryl, hopeless, irredeemable Daryl, the boyfriend she can't seem to let go of. Maybe all love is hopeless. Maybe Michael Deane's rule is wiser than he knows: We want what we want- we love who we love." (Walter 298). Claire thought about it, and came up with the conclusion that her and Daryl shared something more, and this was different from her past relationships. I believe that the way Pat came home to find Lydia, and how their journey wasn't easy but they made it work, had a strong impact of Claire. You can't change the way you truly feel, and that is what Claire discovered from this play. I think she was also waiting and expecting Daryl to be the "perfect boyfriend", and although that wasn't happening, I think Claire was ignoring all the little gestures he did to show her he loved her. 

This play not only had an effect on Claire, but on Shane as well. After the play he felt the need to reach out and apologize to his x-wife, for acting the way he had and not being there for her. Although it was too late fro him, there was still something in the play that gave him pushed him to do so. What was it about Lydia's play, and essentially Pat's life, that had such a strong impact on both Claire and Shane, to reach out to their loved ones, and change their views on their relationships? 

The odd relationship of Dee and Alvis

I thought it was kind of weird that Dee and Alvis got married. The book paints Alvis as a damaged man who is trying to make sense of all that he has seen in War and later in the book we discover he is an alcoholic. Dee chooses men who are not good for her. First Richard and then Alvis. She should have been a little more careful, especially because Pat was so young and needed stability. I don't think that Alvis treated her as bad as Richard, but he is an emotional mess. The book implies that Dee constantly has to clean up Alvis and his drinking problem.
"It was how she felt now, the sight of Alvis-even Drunk Dr. Alvis, his lecturing alter ego-enough to break her up. She carefully dabbed her eyes,"(Walter 264)

Dee has many problems of her own to deal with and it is too much for her to have to look after another man, especially one she may not love.

"She felt better, but she was still puzzled about why Ron had angered her so much. Was it just because he was a horny prick? Or was there something familiar and cutting in what he's said-the love of your lofe? Maybe not. But it didn't have to be like that did it?"(Walter 268)

Maybe Dee gets swept up by certain men and loses her rationality. I think Dee is a good person, but(at least when she was younger) she didn't value her own long-term happiness enough. Why do you think Dee married Alvis?

Paintings on the Pillbox

On the small, nearly deserted village of Porto Vergogna, there was a pillbox bunker where soldiers would hide out during he war, these may have been very common, but this one was unique. Pasquel discovered this pillbox bunker along with the paintings on the walls inside of it. The paintings inside the pillbox consisted of a seascape of the view around him, two paintings of two different German soldiers, and two identical paintings of a single girl. Pasquel and Dee Moray studied the paintings for quite a while and decided that the soldier who painted these must be in love with the girl. 

Dee seemed to be very concerned that the soldier made it home safely to the girl he loved. Pasquel later found Dee hiding out in the pillbox, and they ended up discussing the relationship of the soldier and the girl again. Why was this so important to Dee? Did she feel like she could relate to the relationship these two people might have had, assuming Pasquel's and Dee's inferences about them were true. 

As we continue to read, we find that the soldier was not longing to come home safely to the girl he was presumably in love with, but instead to his piano instructor. The one man he shared more than a friendship with, who he thought about every night before he fell asleep. "After the first swing, it is done: the painter will not make it home to Germany, to his piano instructor or his sister- killed anyway, a week ago, in a fire at the munitions plant where she worked, his spoiled sister whose photograph he carried to war and whose portrait he painted twice on the wall of a pillbox bunker on the Italian coast." (Walter 328). The girl in the paintings ended up to be his sister, and if Dee knew that I believe she would have felt a much different connection to the painting than she did when she thought it was the woman the painter loved. However, I am still unsure why Dee was so infatuated with the painting and the love story she connected it with.