- Intermezzo opens with the aftermath of a father’s death, focusing on two brothers, Peter (32, a lawyer) and Ivan (22, a former chess prodigy).
- Peter, outwardly successful, struggles privately with grief and guilt, increasingly turning to work, alcohol, and pills.
- He is entangled in complicated relationships—with Sylvia, his long-time ex who now lives with chronic pain, and Naomi, a much younger college student who depends on him financially.
- Ivan, socially awkward and emotionally fragile, drifts after university before reconnecting with chess at a rural exhibition.
- There, Ivan meets Margaret, a 36-year-old divorced arts manager, and they begin a discreet and intense romantic relationship despite their age gap.
- The novel alternates between the perspectives of Peter, Ivan, and Margaret, each voice distinct in style and rhythm.
- The brothers share a tense and distant relationship that both grief and jealousy amplify.
- Peter’s relationships deepen his emotional turmoil: Sylvia represents stability but is marked by loss, while Naomi symbolizes youthfulness he both craves and disdains.
- Naomi faces crises of her own—eviction and arrest—which Peter tries to resolve, pulling him deeper into her turbulent world.
- Ivan and Peter clash physically and emotionally when Peter condemns Ivan’s affair with Margaret, triggering a brutal fight.
- Margaret’s background—marked by divorce, betrayal, and quiet resilience—adds complexity and depth to her bond with Ivan.
- The brothers gradually confront grief and resentment, working toward a fragile understanding of each other’s pain.
- Philosophical questions around beauty, morality, family duty, and identity emerge through chess metaphors and introspective monologues.
- Laced with themes of gender, power imbalance, and generational divides, the novel examines how relationships shape and fracture us.
- The “intermezzo” motif—both musical and chess-related—symbolises the unexpected junctures that disrupt life’s narrative.
- The novel favours emotional realism over tidy resolutions, portraying characters in ongoing processes of self knowledge and acceptance.
- In the end, the brothers find a tentative reconciliation, but the novel leaves readers with an open sense of healing, possibility, and complexity.
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