Peter Selgin Chapter Summaries

Introduction The book written by Peter Selgin can be regarded as a lively and insightful book that respects its readers ' intelligence. Along with that, the book offers a reader a clear and crisp guidance on the family life. The main idea of the book can be summarized as the difference between the imaginary and the real world. The main thesis of this paper is the crisis of family relationships that comes as a result of human inability to understand the interests of its counterpart. The story itself is very deep and philosophical. It shows the crisis of human relationships. The story is focused on the description of the trivial story of two people: Frank and Dorothy. For a long time these people are staying in marriage. The whole story
The relations came to the point when there is a strong need to introduce changes. These changes must be taken by Frank, who is very eager to change the situation. When he meets the other one who shares his interests in life (swimming) he seems to forget that he has an elderly wife. But it wasn’t only Fred who was guilty of the growing gab in the relationships between two people. Dorothy seemed to show no interest in Fred’s life. “He had told Dorothy the same story several times, but he did not remember her being amazed. He wondered if she was watching the float now. No, she was reading her best-seller, or chucking corn for dinner. Dorothy had long since lost any interest in his swimming. He could have drowned for all she knew.” (p. 13) The disinterest of Dorothy helped the other women, Juliet to win the attention of Fred. Somehow Fred feels that he is being engaged by the charm of the women. Then goes the turning point of the story – Fred tries to save his marriage. He eventually pushes Dorothy into the realm of his life. Finally he brings Dorothy to the beach where he is practicing swimming. While showing the situations like this the author of the story shows how the crisis of