Ah crap...

I just figured out WHY Edgar rejected Almondine so harshly, upon seeing her with Claude...

That was Edgar's "woman, they name is frailty"...

How'd I miss that before?

Okay, I'll admit to being an English major nerd.

I think the human reaction to death is both central to this conversation (people hate the ending of the book because everyone dies), and the book's theme.

Here's Hamlet:

But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?

Contrast this to Almondine's embrace of death. I believe Almondine chose to end her mortal life so that she could continue to look for Edgar...and to be there waiting for him when he joined her again. (and I'm loving that "traveller" is the word Shakespeare uses in this speech...that's Almondine's word too.)

It was a little bit like the scene in which Trudy held the dying wolf pup, and between them they made a bargain that one would go and one would stay. That's the kind of honesty, dignity, poise that I think our dogs can teach us best. Their connection to the natural world--including the absolute acceptance of death as just another event in the journey--is part of the wisdom humans have forgotten.

I think my dog Luca's near-death recently from bloat and internal bleeding reminded me of this again, and is probably why I'm fixated on this theme. No matter how bad things looked for Luca during his ordeal, he accepted it. He wasn't afraid. I was a mess. But he never was.

Biggest flaw in the story?

Nary a dog farted.