Lois

[kit120.livejournal.com]

I always thought Lois ended up killing herself, because she couldn't get over losing the cricket match.  Everyone tells her it's not a matter of life and death, "but they were wrong".  I haven't read 'Cricket Term' for about 25 years and I never owned it, but I remember rereading that section over and over and being absolutely chilled by it. Did I read too much into it?  Also, given that she's extremely competitive and reasonably good at making excuses for herself and blaming others why doesn't she go on to great success in life?

Comments

[smellingbottle.livejournal.com]

I've read it as suggesting simply that it was an important failure for Lois, something for which she couldn't let herself off the hook, and one of the events that permanently alters your sense of yourself. That passage, if I remmber it rightly - I've no idea where my childhood copy of Cricket Term, and used to doze off over the lengthy game description anyway, having less than no comprehension of the rules - is chilling because AF is so good on the experience of realising at the onset of adulthood that you are ultimately alone in the world, and that failure is not only possible, but quite likely.