☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣'s Reviews > Love Story

Q:
'On the water too?' she asked. (c)
Q:
Don't bullshit me, Preppie.' (c)
Q:
'What the hell makes you so smart?' I asked.
'I wouldn't go for coffee with you,' she answered.
'Listen — I wouldn't ask you.'
'That,' she replied, 'is what makes you stupid.'
Let me explain why I took her for coffee. (c)

The Waning of the Middle Ages is the opener here. Both for the exam and for the relationship in question.

The MCs are initially off on all the wrong notes:
Q:
And she was taking some pretty snowy courses: Comp. Lit. 105,
Music 150, Music 201 —
'Music 201? Isn't that a graduate course?'
She nodded yes, and was not very good at masking her pride.
'Renaissance polyphony.'
'What's polyphony?'
'Nothing sexual, Preppie.' (c)
Q:
'Jenny, if you're so convinced I'm a loser, why did you bulldoze me into buying you coffee?'
She looked me straight in the eye and smiled.
'I like your body,' she said.
Part of being a big winner is the ability to be a good loser. There's no paradox involved. It's a distinctly Harvard thing to be able to turn any defeat into victory. (c)
Q:
Listen, you snotty Radcliffe bitch, Friday night is the Dartmouth hockey game.'
'So?'
'So I'd like you to come.'
She replied with the usual Radcliffe reverence for sport:
'Why the hell should I come to a lousy hockey game?'
I answered casually:
'Because I'm playing.'
There was a brief silence. I think I heard snow falling.
'For which side?' she asked. (c)

At some point it does get better. But not by much since, eh.. all the 'narcissistic bitch' vs 'Preppy' references are quite jarring. Can 2 magna cum laude almost-graduates not talk to each other a bit more, I dunno, civilly? Tenderly?
Q:
'Oliver, you're gonna flunk out if you just sit there watching me study.'
'I'm not watching you study. I'm studying.'
'Bullshit. You're looking at my legs.'
'Only once in a while. Every chapter.'
'.'That book has extremely short chapters.'
'Listen, you narcissistic bitch, you're not that great-looking! '
'I know. But can I help it if you think so?' (c)

At some point they turn down on mutual naggling and the whole affair seems to become more organic. And less made up by someone's inflamed imagination.

The son-dad relationship is so-so, full of 'simplistic sermonettes', posturing and 'steak' discussions. I'm not persuaded that the father is as dreadfully horrible as Ollie makes him seem to be. Maybe he's emotinally unavailable but in epoch everyone was like that and even this phrase had not yet been coined.
Q:
'And there's always the Peace Corps,' he remarked, completely out of the blue.
'Sir?' I asked, not quite sure whether he was making a statement or asking a question.
'I think the Peace Corps is a fine thing, don't you?' he said.
'Well,' I replied, 'it's certainly better than the War Corps.'
We were even. I didn't know what he meant and vice versa. (c) Their communication skills could do with some development.

Looking for job & salary:
Q:
Allow me to mention, however, that Jonas and Marsh paid Oliver Barrett IV $11,800, the absolute highest
salary received by any member of our graduating class.
So you see I was only third academically. (c)

Overall, I think I'm mildly disappointed here. The whole thing is so lukewarm... Or maybe it's just me not getting things here. Maybe....

The father-son reconciliation thing was good, at least.

Other fun:
Q:
'What's wrong with the 'right things'?' she asked, delighting in the apparent paradox. (c)
Q:
'You'll kill us before your parents can murder us.' (c)
Q:
After the debacle of introducing Jennifer to her potential in-laws ('Do I call them
outlaws now?' she asked) ... (c)
Q:
'The bride speaks too?' he asked, almost as if this — of all things — might be the coup de grace.
'Philip,' said his daughter, 'could you imagine any situation in which I would shut up?' (c)
Q:
Jenny, we're legally married!'
'Yeah, now I can be a bitch.' (c)
Q:
I allowed that a Radcliffe music major could probably compose a nice little negative RSVP without
professional guidance. (c)
Q:
'Love means not ever having to say you're sorry.' (c) Overboard much too much?