Book Title : Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About
Author
: Mil Millington
Publisher
: Villard
Date
Published: 2002
Number
of pages: 373
Genre
: Comedy
Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About
tells the story of Pel Dalton who lived with his Germany girlfriend named
Ursula and two sons Jonathan and Peter and work in IT Departement of University
Library. He often argued with his girlfriend in or outside home from little to
big things. He also experienced promotion on his job but found some miserable
things on his ways. The story basically tells Pel daily lives at home and
office.
There
are two stands out characters in this novel, Pel and his girlfriend, Ursula.
They lived together not as the wife and husband, but as the partner. The
relationship that they had is a long term relationship. Pel is a talkative man
who often argued with his girlfriend over small things and can’t share his
thought and problem of his work with his girlfriend because of the arguments
that they often had. Ursula in the other way, even though she is more talkative
than Pel, she can express her feeling well, so her partner knew what problem
she had.
I
have no character that I adore in this novel, but I found that Roo one of Pel
fellow who always be Pel friends to talk or to share his thought catch my
interest. His role in this novel is not big, but I think he played significant
role for the side of Pel. He appeared as Pel partner of dialogue in the office,
as I know that Pel has very much burden of works, the jokes or talks that they
had in the office I believe could relieve the stress that Pel had. The quality
of friendship that Roo had is quite important to have as a social creature in
real live.
I
found interesting behavior that Ursula had in the last part of this novel. I
have the tendency to hate Ursula along the plot, but before the end, I found
that her sweetness toward Pel. She tend to express her anger every day, make
big of small things, blame her boyfriend in daily basis, but deep down she
actually care by not the words but action. When Pel on his lowest point, Ursula
didn’t say much, but she led him to have a rest to not hear what was going on
there, just sleep. She didn’t questioning much even though she didn’t know
clearly what was going on, but she understood the situation. It moved me so
much.
Part
that bothers me a lot is the way they take care of the children. They argue a
lot on daily basis and often forget their responsibility over their kids. They
even argue on who actually should take the kids on the bath. It’s ridiculous.
Sometime they don’t act like parents. When they are called to come to the kids
school and asked about what religion they taught to their children because
their children tend to be a bad influence to their friends, Pal didn’t answer
the question sincerely but take it as it is not a serious problem.
Along
the story, I was wondering the reason why they commit to live together for this
long, the story didn’t provide that. If I were the author, I would like give
the extension of romance they had before they argued much when they live
together. I will explicitly explain why they can hold on that kind of
relationship. I will also reduce the percentage of work stories Pel had and add
Ursula’s works more.
I
believe every partner in the world sometimes arguing. It is the common thing
happen in relationship. But, I realized, that very small things like Ursula and
Pel had can led to endless debate. The debate such as where the keys are
triggered them to blame each other. How much people argue
doesn’t define how deep actual feeling is. That’s what I learn from the novel.
The debate that Pel and Ursula had doesn’t mean they don’t care for each other
actually.
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