Very inspiring book, touches the ethernal questions, how do we manage life after comming from our families. Why are we what we are. How did our famileis influence us.
in my family there were a few "bad pebbles" which occured some time ago.	Life events create ripples which spread throug several generations. A dramatic event a few generations before may influence us today. Reading the book I look for the significant "life pebbles"	Livshändelser skapar krusningar som sprids genom flera generationer. En dramatisk händelse några generationer tidigare kan påverka oss idag. När jag läser boken letar jag efter de betydande "livsstenarna"

 

me in China why am I here? Who are the people around me. A child is wondering.
	These are the private, subjective, spontaneous “notes in progress” as the impression form the book are fresh.	Det här är de privata, subjektiva, spontana "noterna pågår" eftersom intrycket från boken är fräscht.
Brideshead Revisited	The book is read in parallel with the daily watching the Brideshead Revisited, the third time.
my reference	The second immediate reference is my life on Sao Tome, Africa but with many similarities to Dominica. (Actually, when I was accepting the offer I was under impression that I am going  to Saint Thomas in Caribbean.
	I am very interested in many aspects of life to the two main protagonists, very curious to know more, many questions. I did not get many answers but i would like to know more, especially after being acquainted with the events, but why so, why did it go this way.
	The book feels as a “work in progress”, a documentation of the life two families united in the marriage between Inge (Danish family) and Erland (Swedish Family). The perspective is clearly from the "Danish side".
electronic format gives chance to improve	I would be advantageous to have such a book in an electronic format as one could mark the missing part, give reference to the person, names used in the letter and which are often not related to the narration, the letters do not follow the time sequence neither the intrinsic logic of events. The letters are the testimonies of the emotional state of the persons who wrote them.
	It may be good time to add here that the letters are somehow terse and do not overflow with emotions what is the characteristic of the main person Inge.

 

some keys on the states of the protagonists not events which are "pebbles"	"Hemmets dissonans splittrar och försätter barnen i näsan uthärdlig ensamhet. Ur förtvivlan växer hos Inge en längtan efter att bli sedd, till nästan vilket pris som helst."  "Erland är en bråkstake som till följd av sin dyslexi och perioder av stamning hellre uttrycker sig med knytnävarna än med ord"
	Chapter 4, intermezzo Inge and Erland are there, did I miss something, how did the main protagonists meet? Will it come as future retrospection? Chapter 1 has some hints but the description should be repeated as it is a biograph not a novel.
	In 1952 Inge had a nervous breakdown, is hospitalized, did she attended psychotherapy which was very popular in the upper class in Vienna.
Should we guess?	Inge 17 year and the boat ride with the trainees, what has happened? Should we guess?
	Lillian’s position is not clear. association
	Some scenes are reconstruction, probably based on character of the persons as the author couldn't be present, this approach is legitimate but more openly speculative mode could be helpful. A distance to the protagonists could be helpful, more descriptive, less reconstructions of dialogs which give impressions of a novel not a biography.
	The middle part of the book contains copies of the correspondence which are good as background information but difficult to place in the context of actions of the main actors and logistics.
	The main persons act in a condition which put extremely high emotional press. An exceptional degree of self-denial is needed to cope with the foreign environment and internal tension between expectations and the reality, the dreams and the reality, the illusions about each other and self-deception. (Brideheads Revisited is being projected on the "Madam is back".)
	Still I am not able to conclude, is this a novel or a biography, a biography command more distance and gives more freedom to  comment and speculate about the persons one is describing. There are many areas which are missing. A biography should give a full picture, make life of protagonists comprehensible, a novel not.
	Would the book be in the electronic form it could be "refilled" in the areas which are missing. The families are very interesting, their life make you want to engage in their motivations, their needs and understand the forces which drive them. Do they project their deep emotional needs on the events and persons encountered. Now we are watching the series "The white lotus" (exceptionally good series) the same impressions, the persons do not communicate with the counterparts but with the imagination of the persons they interact with, they don't want to engage with the real people not even want to know who the persons are.
	Exiting protagonists, exiting people, exiting events but no clear answers from the author of the biography, I want to know more. Normally a biography tries to bring the reader closer to the persons in question.
here is my key question	the Inge and Erland created a lot of commotion "launching" themselves into the big world, away from the "frustrated" own parent families with a dramatic history, at least in the Erlands family. The interesting repercussion (ripples) are surely felt in the generation of children of Inge and Erland. I assume, the children of Inge and Erland are like children of the Lady Marchmain and Lord Marchmain, they feel and act not knowing what are the reasons. Sebastian is just demotivated and depressed, there is nothing traumatic in his life but the "ripples" affect him.