Dale Loves Sophie To Death

DALE LOVES SOPHIE TO DEATH

by Robb Forman Dew

 

Award: National Book Winner 1982

 

Date Read: December 5, 2020

 

The title for this novel is incredibly misleading. I had thought it would be about a passionate love that either triumphed or failed. In reality, it is about a couple who spend their summers apart as the husband, Martin, maintains the house and his work schedule, while his wife, Dinah, spends the summer in her childhood hometown taking care of the children.

 

I didn’t relate to any of the characters here. I found Dinah to be self-absorbed and extremely bitter with not a lot of reason. I thought she was unsympathetic to her children, having overlooked her son, Toby’s illness until it was too much to ignore. She doesn’t seem to relate to her kids on an emotional level at all.

 

Meanwhile, Martin is left to his own devices and he (surprise, surprise) embarks on an affair that just seems to fill the time. The affair does not sprout over emotion or a lustful passion but, rather, out of boredom. In the end, he is committed to his wife and family and is relieved to have them back home.

 

So this vacancy of character growth or development leaves me wondering about the title. The only mention of it is at the beginning as they are entering town, the title is scrawled on an overpass in concrete. Are readers supposed to infer that it says something about this couple and their domestic bliss? Or is it a mere reference to how committed they are to one another, regardless of passion? No doubt there is love between them, even if it isn’t the deep longing of young love.

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