What’s your opinion of the section where Golden Boy and Monife reunite? Did you blame one party more than the other for affair?
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The affair was not surprising because they really loved each. However, I blame them both equally. Monique didn’t have the self-respect or self confidence to move on, and falsely and selfishly believed that Golden Boy would leave his wife. Golden Boy allowed his guilty conscience of not supporting Monique against his mother, (unlike in Crazy Rich Asians) to rationalize the affair. It’s like he wanted his cake and eat it too.
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I agree with Joyce. Sadly, they both were influenced by their families and ultimately had no free choice.
I believe that Golden Boy and Monife were equally to blame for the affair. There were multiple opportunities for either of them to choose not to proceed, but neither of them did so.
I think that this was the part of the book that I had the most problems with. Monife wasn’t a stupid woman and was the most at risk. While I feel both were to blame, I was frustrated that she … I don’t know… fell for it? didn’t protect herself? was so naive?
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Kim’s response prompted me to remember something I found odd in the book. Most of the women in the book were well educated and seemed to have “good” jobs, yet their behavior didn’t seem to be consistent with intelligence re the “curse”, except Eniiyi, thank goodness!
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They were both to blame for the affair. Golden Boy was weak and caved to his family’s expectations of who he should marry. Monife just couldn’t get over loving him. They were like an addiction to each other, the drug they couldn’t escape. I wish Monife would have had more pride in herself to not fall into GB using her. If only she could have seen how weak he really was.
If Golden Boy showed weakness, it was in the affair. I really believe he would have stood up to his parents before he married Amara, but once he realized Mo would never trust him, he gave in and married. Once he was married, while he clearly still loved Mo and succumbed to the affair, he now had a wife and daughter (and another child on the way), and did not want to abandon them. (This also reflects that he would never have abandoned Mo had they married - despite the “curse.”)
He did offer to stand by Mo and his child - and told his parents and wife that he would do so. This again shows that he would have stood up to his parents had Mo trusted him in the first place and he would have married her.
Well I am just going to say Golden boy was married so perhaps he should have been loyal to his wife.
I completely agree. I could sort of sympathize with her, but I had zero sympathy for him. I felt like he was just using her emotions to get “some” while also getting it at home too, and it was wrong on so many levels.
Monife seemed to float along in life and accept what happened to her as beyond her control. Was she living in a dream of what still could be? And once the affair began did she deliberately not use birth control or insist GB must? She was the “shimmering” character in the story. Fully realized and yet not. And of course, after her drowning her essence seemed to appear in situations.
I blame them both but felt more blame should be on Mo. It was 3 years later and she had more than enough time to accept that he didn’t choose her.Yes he had the hots for her but not enough to choose to go up against his parents. If she believed in the curse she knew it would not work out. The first time , spur of the moment no contraception but after that no excuse.
It seems there was a sufficient passage of time that she should have moved on. And yet…I know of a woman and man who dated in high school, drifted apart and married others, and then - ta da - found each other again at a high school reunion. They divorced their current spouses and married. Unsure if they lived happily ever after! Past relationships can have golden or rosy memories, and the reasons they failed altered in one’s recall. I suspect this might have been a phenomena that both GB and Mo felt.
One hopes for regret on the side of your partner, aka GB, however he held true to form. I feel most everyone has had a point in their lives when one wonders what if. Monife choose to see what if and she found out. He was weak, always was and always would be. Money, comfort, etc meant more than true love in GB case.
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I definitely think both are responsible and that tired line, “I thought you were taking care of it” without a discussion of birth control really bothers me in this day and age.
I blame them both, and I never liked that Monique called him Golden Boy. She seemed to have placed him on a pedestal that didn’t suit him. He had good manners and was nice. I think Golden Boy knew that she would be a willing partner, and Monique had remained static after their breakup, especially for someone who projected confidence. She did not deal in reality.
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“Golden Boy” nickname puzzled me. Was this her way of putting him up on a pedestal or a sarcastic way of pulling him down from his obvious wealth and upper class?
While I understand your feeling about this, I don’t think it is that uncommon for a well-educated person with a “good” job to read based emotion, family background, or cultural beliefs.