The Wedding and Honeymoon Backstory

Die, My Love

This subplot reconstructs the narrator and her husband's wedding and honeymoon, revealing the marriage's origins in tears and abandonment.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Wedding Vows The Wedding Vows from "Die, My Love". The Wedding Vows Context In a makeshift chapel, a parish priest who is even less religious than the narrator recites the marriage vows.

The Wedding Vows from "Die, My Love". The Wedding Vows Context In a makeshift chapel, a parish priest who is even less religious than the narrator recites the marriage vows.

The Wedding Vows Context In a makeshift chapel, a parish priest who is even less religious than the narrator recites the marriage vows. She hears only babble and buzzing. Turn While the priest speaks of holy matrimony and duties, the narrator imagines her legs running down the road towards a parallel life. She also sees herself sinking a knife into the flesh of a cow. Aftermath Everyone whoops like jackals, and rice gets lodged in the pores of her head. She searches desperately for her stag and for her son, but no one and nothing can stop her.

The Sleeper Bus The Sleeper Bus from "Die, My Love". The Sleeper Bus Context The newlyweds ride on the upper deck of a sleeper bus, still dressed for the party, with glitter in their hair.

The Sleeper Bus from "Die, My Love". The Sleeper Bus Context The newlyweds ride on the upper deck of a sleeper bus, still dressed for the party, with glitter in their hair.

The Sleeper Bus Context The newlyweds ride on the upper deck of a sleeper bus, still dressed for the party, with glitter in their hair. She sleeps on his shoulder, and he watches the road rush towards him. Turn She is pregnant but the ruffled dress hides it well. At a petrol station he gets off, leaves her asleep, and cannot urinate behind the wooden shed. Aftermath He hurries back because buses do not wait. The honeymoon begins with a man who cannot even relieve himself, already fleeing the life he has chosen.

The Crying Groom The Crying Groom from "Die, My Love". The Crying Groom Context The husband watches the road, the crosses with names of the dead, the rubbish tips and the power lines.

The Crying Groom from "Die, My Love". The Crying Groom Context The husband watches the road, the crosses with names of the dead, the rubbish tips and the power lines.

The Crying Groom Context The husband watches the road, the crosses with names of the dead, the rubbish tips and the power lines. He cries the whole way to the honeymoon. Turn First he cries in front of a wasteland, then on a bend opening onto the sea, then at the sound of hail on the roof. When the bus reaches the final straight, he has barely slept. Aftermath His wife stretches, smiles and says good morning without moving her hands from her belly. The image of the crying groom becomes part of the family legend, passed down to the children.

The Abandoned Wedding Night The Abandoned Wedding Night from "Die, My Love". The Abandoned Wedding Night Context The bride waits alone in a room with a ceiling fan, dressed in a white wedding dress soaked through.

The Abandoned Wedding Night from "Die, My Love". The Abandoned Wedding Night Context The bride waits alone in a room with a ceiling fan, dressed in a white wedding dress soaked through.

The Abandoned Wedding Night Context The bride waits alone in a room with a ceiling fan, dressed in a white wedding dress soaked through. She has cut her fringe and left it on the pillow, turning herself into two people. Turn The groom has promised to arrive early, but the phone stays silent. She calls the concierge, orders a martini without olives, and begins a high-voltage striptease on top of the toilet. Aftermath She flushes the toilet and concludes that the child must be to blame. The wedding night is already a scene of abandonment and hysteria.

Marriage Vows in Memory Marriage Vows in Memory from "Die, My Love". Marriage Vows in Memory Context The words of the wedding ceremony return to the narrator as a distant echo while she is trapped in her failing marriage.

Marriage Vows in Memory from "Die, My Love". Marriage Vows in Memory Context The words of the wedding ceremony return to the narrator as a distant echo while she is trapped in her failing marriage.

Marriage Vows in Memory Context The words of the wedding ceremony return to the narrator as a distant echo while she is trapped in her failing marriage. She remembers promising to love, honour and cherish while God grants them life. Turn She recalls the priest's words and her own silent wish to sink a knife into flesh. The vows sound less like a promise and more like a sentence. Aftermath The wedding backstory becomes another piece of evidence that the marriage was doomed from its first hour. The honeymoon tears and the abandoned wedding night were omens nobody read.

flashback, before the honeymoon

immediately after the wedding, on the way to the honeymoon

during the sleeper bus journey south

the night after the wedding

later in the book, as the marriage disintegrates