karenlund
Jon from England meets Ragna, a Scandinavian journalist in Copenhagen. Jon works worldwide on environmental projects as a consultant while Ragna is active with the foreign press services. A love relationship arises between the two people, no more young, and not predestined for this event. A complicated partnership develops from this, at first rather casually and just sensually oriented. The relationship for Ragna turns out to be a life defining trap, dominated at first by the mutual erotic appeal. Jon remains sovereign and establishes himself in a double existence. He maintains a marriage in England though he perfectly incorporates Ragna into his turbulent life. Ragna loses more and more of her sovereignty, her spiritual independence and her physical strength.
The couple establishes a life in the Philippines, Jon's centre of life is his work.
Ragna more and more is tormented by fears of loss, she worries about the losing of her appeal . Her latent fears of aging are reinforced by the surroundings in which the couple live. Love, eroticism, sex, mainly happens in the banal scheme where older men prefer young partners.
The action takes place not only on a little island in the Far East but also in Rome, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Manila, Hong Kong - and in England. It is, however not just a "travellers' tale", these places join in to give appropriately analogous association frameworks. The surroundings in Asia, the introduction of expats and misfits into the story serve to show the enhancement of Ragna's emotional fears. The story is mainly told by the female Protagonist in the first person. (Narrative style. In the present tense). The Narrator gains shape also in her reminiscences. It is written in a humorous style of journalistic-literary. Locations and strange people are described precisely, and wittily integrated. An unusual love story between a man and a woman already advanced in years. A thrilling novel with roadmovie background.