A few more thoughts

keri your comments gave me more to think about.

I had to think whether I identified with Rosemary in some way. I decided that that at her age I also was very confused about my place in the world and in particular how I fit in with the opposite sex, I think I often ignored my own feelings because they scared me a little bit. However, I never felt as isolated as she did. And although I always considered myself as being self confident and independent I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had the guts to go to New York knowing no one and without a plan (I have always been a planner).

I also liked your quotes 2 and 4 There was another one I liked "books aren't lumps of paper, but minds on shelves". When she's describing Walter Geist at first she says "From the first it was his eyes. His eyes could not be caught". I always saw him that way through the rest of the book. I thought her physical descriptions of people were very vivid.

I agree that even though the ending didn't really tell you where everyone was going to end up (except poor Walter) I think that Rosemary learned from her experiences in a positive way and probably ending up living an interesting more informed life in NY...

Most interesting character for me: Rosemary but maybe that's not fair because we know the most about Rosemary...so other than Rosemary... I think it would be Pearl or Oscar (even though I don't like his character in the end, he was an enigma...I kept thinking we'd know the real Oscar...but then again maybe we did...just didn't like what we knew.

I'd have lunch with Pearl.

I'd want to throw a book at....Oscar...in that scene where he reacted so horribly to Rosemary's awkward attempt to kiss him...honestly you'd think she had the plague or something. He was a grown man..he could have handled that so much better...in that moment he was a self-centered immature idiot.

Keri...I liked your comments about Walter...I do think his desires and insecurities blinded him to what was right and wrong (for either himself or others around him). As I said before...I don't think it was an accident that the author had his physical blindness worsening as his behavior became more blind to human decency.