Reader's Ink discussion

Elgin: Befuddled genius victim or savvy cheater?

Guess I would nominate him savvy cheater. The characters are so odd that they are in a lot of ways difficult to label, if that's the word I'm looking for. Elgin was okay, just crazy odd.

I'm going with befuddled genius. I thought his character was hilariously adorable. Soo Lin is OBSESSED with him, and he's so clueless. And then they have the awkward, unpleasant sex, which was perfect plotting. But I think Elgin has another layer to him. He's genuinely distressed about his wife, but he tries everything except actually COMMUNICATING with her. He's also just so polite. He doesn't communicate well with ANYONE.

I agree, but I couldn't escape a niggling thought that the story was told from Bee's perspective, and I think Bee wanted her Dad to be a hero.

Part of the downside of the ending is that it's difficult to get that resolution to show Elgin's true character.