Dimitri Emch Professor Richard Osborne English 115 11 February 2018 A Strange Love Affair

Dimitri Emch
Professor Richard Osborne
English 115
11 February 2018
A Strange Love Affair.
In the story ” A Strange Love Affair” written by Jan Myrdal written in “1968”, is about a man who decides to try and rekindle a lost love but then realizes that he has made a huge mistake. She in the beginning refused to have sex with him which made him less interested so when he moved he moved on. He then goes on to share the last major event of his life and trying to teach us what to do next time. He structures his narrative in away that gets all the information across just enough.
In the beginning of the story Myrdal first begins with how he first met his love B and then talks about how he then proceeds to move on from her and find his new love. Men had a decision back then cause the war was such a huge impact that men either had to find a women to marry fast before he got sent to die. He then goes back to catch up with B to see if they could respark the relationship. It was no the right thing to do back then cause being alone with a woman was frowned upon. While he was alone with the girl he starts to overthink about the whole situation and his conscience took over. He then makes the correct decision and says that he has no more feelings for her so then they begin to talk about their thoughts.
Throughout this narrative he writes notes and organizes the timeline nicely. Even though a huge war is going on behind the scenes he never brings it up. The story misses a lot of information that could either help his situation or weaken it.
I feel like he didn’t want us to read a huge autobiography about his life that’s why he wrote so little. He just wants the important part to be that he messed up and that we should learn to be better than him. One thing he keeps mentioning in the story is that his “Feet Stink” which is just his conscience telling him he is messing up. He thinks it’s just because his feet stink but really he knows deep down he is ruining something that is so good with his new love. He hopes newer generations see that commiting to one person can be good but should learn not to dwell on the past.
Jan writes this beautiful narrative with just enough information to keep the reader interested. He writes each sentence with grace and teaches us the importance to not cheat.