NOVEL ANALYSIS 2012 THE LAST YEAR OF BEING MARRIED

THE LAST YEAR OF BEING MARRIED
Protagonist Sarah Giles
The ‘sliding doors’ proposition. What if Sarah Giles had said ‘yes’ 
when she was asked in the church if she wished to marry Paul?   The 
novel is what happens if Sarah Giles does not trust to her instinct and 
goes with the flow of others ‘pleasing’.  She marries Paul O’Brien.
What Sarah anticipates in the relationship on her wedding day comes to 
pass.   Her husband Paul meets someone else and decides he wants out of 
the marriage.   Sarah is again isolated but this time finds support 
 from places she least expects – friends of Paul’s, a clairvoyant, her 
business contacts rather than her close friends and those whom she felt 
she could rely on.   She also finds love and friendship in places she 
would have least expected – their mutual friend Joe, who is many ways 
better suited to her than her husband was, her barrister, Jeremy, the 
guy trying to sell her a new mini, Steve, the gardener, Simon and even, 
hilariously her husband’s work colleague, Pierce.  All of these are 
credible relationships, especially as Sarah’s vulnerability and 
strength come to the fore and these men see her for who she really is 
rather than who Paul has painted her as.   She becomes her own person 
with her own voice.
She also finds herself with choice.  Does she try to fight, or does she 
go? Does she marry the first man she has a relationship with (which is 
what everyone expects her to do) or does she hold out for the 
relationship she really wants to perfect – that with herself.
The relationship between Paul and Sarah is complex.  The character of 
Paul is obtuse and mean spirited. He tries to emotionally wear her 
down, by going on holiday with the other woman just before Christmas, 
by buying Christmas presents with her, by abusing the counselling 
process timing his announcement of the affair and the proposed holiday 
to do ultimate damage and humiliation and weaken Sarah’s resolve.  
Indeed, it is only the intervention of Paul’s father, that Paul agrees 
to leave the marital home.    There is inference although Paul’s mother 
sees no wrong in her son, his father does.
Paul is obtuse as a personality and Sarah has to find ways to deal with 
and ultimately live with this vagueness.  “It is like talking to a 
window’, she says at one point, and ‘an alien’ at another.   Indeed 
it’s the first thing she says in the novel, but she has been deluded by 
Paul since she first met him.   They have always had poor communication 
(not being able to discuss lack of sex, the terminations, lots of 
‘taboo’ subjects) and she has been living with someone she has not been 
able to effectively communicate with for a very long time –even before 
her marriage.  Sarah has always been living with ‘an alien’, now she 
has woken to the fact she is.
  Initially Sarah deals with it by escaping the home – travelling – in 
much the same way her father dealt with her mother – by always working 
late, leaving Sarah to deal with the issues of her mother.
Paul chooses another woman who is also called ‘Sarah’.
This is an intriguing and telling choice.   Paul chooses someone with 
the same name, literally and perhaps unintentionally denoting he has 
directly replaced the wife Sarah.   The point is not lost on his wife, 
but there is also a subliminal message.   By choosing another ‘Sarah’ 
he is choosing another woman he is able to control or confuse (Paul 
would never chose someone he could not control).   It also becomes 
apparent the ‘other Sarah’ does not like the fact his wife has the same 
name as her which signifies insecurities (every time he says my name is 
he thinking about the mother of his child?).     Paul is a calculating 
character (moving the bottles of expensive wine out of the house and 
taking the files long before the ‘announcement is made’ anticipating 
back lash well in advance).   Has he been planning his exit for a long 
time?  Has he had many affairs? And if so, for how long and how many is 
never hinted upon or recognised in the novel, so Sarah is unaware if 
the other ‘Sarah’ is one of many or has been going on for a long time.  
The reader is left guessing as to Paul’s length of infidelity and also 
how many women he has been unfaithful with.   (intriguingly when men 
read this novel they always believe Paul has had many affairs which he 
has kept hidden from Sarah. Women always believe he has been unfaithful 
only the once).
Sarah Giles throughout feels the guilty party and Paul perpetuates 
this, expecting Sarah to crumble, although not anticipating the 
attempted suicide on Christmas Day.  He cries but not for her, but for 
himself.
Sarah does not behave or react how Paul anticipates and she ultimately 
proves herself much more independent, strong and resilient than he had 
hoped.
Sarah finds strength in adversity and also in being a strong mother to 
Ben and finding and making a new home for herself in England and 
France.   Sarah is able to be financially and emotionally independent 
and ground herself so she can be the strong mother she wants to be for 
Ben.  The romances are incidental and she realises a man does not make 
her happy – she makes her happy.
How is this ‘Sarah Giles’ different to the one in LYOBS?   Sarah has 
become a mother which has given her purpose and focus but she feels 
unnatural in the relationship with Paul.   Both Paul and herself expect 
the relationship to work without needing to work at it – a common issue 
in first and young marriages.   There is resentment on both sides, both 
unarticulated but expressed in different ways.   Sarah Giles does not 
mature until the bullit of Paul’s affair becomes apparent. When she 
tells him, it as though she has been shot.   There is physical pain as 
well as emotional and spiritual but it is as awakening drawing to her 
those who have a connection with her she would not have realised 
otherwise.  She writes poetry, she finds work, she makes not one, but 
two homes. She finds strength she never realised she had.   She finds a 
spiritual path to follow she would not have done if she had stayed with 
Paul.  Or would she?  Should she have waited it out? What would Paul 
have done? Continued to emotionally beat her down?   Why was he 
surprised when she asked for a divorce settlement?    The questions are 
left for the reader to answer because it is irrelevant to the plot 
line. What is relevant is Sarah’s growth as a woman, learning she is 
capable when those around her thought her not so, and surprising not 
only Paul, her mother, and some of her closest friends, but ultimately 
herself.   She gains her voice and direction when she is alone.    She 
becomes ‘all one’ when she finds herself  ‘al one’.
She is happy with what she has achieved at the end of the novel, and is 
with Jeremy, but is not happy because she is with Jeremy.   It’s a 
happy ever after with a woman who has a happy relationship with herself 
– she has achieved what she set out to do in LYOBS.