Hart: Damage Chapters 1-25

“Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive because they have no pity.” Damage tells the story of a fifty year old man who seems to have the perfect life. With a prominent political career, a beautiful marriage with his wife Ingrid, and two sweet children: a son, Martyn, and a daughter, Sally, it’s as if he has it all! He soon realizes that there happens to be something missing in his life: passion. He himself says, “The passion that transforms life, and art, did not seem to be in mine.” This all changes when he meets his son’s girlfriend Anna Burton. He and Anna develop an instant attraction to one another where he suddenly becomes sexually obsessed with her. After their first time meeting he says, “My soul has rushed to Anna Burton. I believed that in such a private matter between myself and God I could freely let it tumble forwards, without fear or damage to heart or mind, body or life. It is in that essential misreading that many lives stumble; in the utterly wrong idea that we are in control.” This turns out to be his exact downfall. He also says, "My life had already ended. It had ended in the split second of my first sight of her. The only truth that matters to me: Anna." Their love affair is surrounded by lies and deception towards the ones that they supposedly care about. I found it crazy how he especially chose Anna over his own wife and son. He was actually considering leaving his wife and not caring about his son’s feelings just to be with this woman. I never knew that passion could cause one to lose sight of important things in one’s life. This man felt possessed by her and thought that he had acquired this passion that he had been longing for. When Anna gives this man an insight to her dark past through a letter she wrote to him, one can see how heartless she has become. She suffered a lot through the death of her brother Aston and does not care if she causes anyone else pain. I think that this is why Anna did not want to give up Martyn or his father. I guess she figured why not have them both to herself because she is already damaged. What more damage can be done? She comes off as being very sneaky and manipulative where she makes her own decisions and would never allow herself to be controlled by any man. Anna is simply playing a game. She does not want to have a life with Martyn’s father as badly as he does. Instead, she just wants to continue to use him on the side, as a secret from Ingrid and Martyn. I felt like Anna had no concern for consequences and used sex to keep men in the palm of her hands. She admitted that she would say yes to Martyn if he ever asked for her hand in marriage and that she would marry his son, “Because Martyn asks no questions. Martyn lets me be.” When was shocked when he heard this. In his mind, she was his and it was naïve of him to think that she would chose him over his son. Even after he learns about her true feelings, he still wants her. He is still willing to stay and risk it all! It’s as if nothing can change his mind or stop him from attaining this passion that she alone gives him. Anna even tells him that she will by a flat for them to meet in if she and Martyn ever marry, when deep down he hopes that Martyn will not marry her. It’s as if there is no bond between him and his son. He starts to view Martyn as a rival for her affection and does not care if he ends up unhappy. Already halfway through this book and I cannot wait to read about what will happen next!