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THERE is a perverse romance to Adam Ross’s debut novel, “Mr Peanut”. This is a book about love. Or, rather, it’s about how love’s honey glow dims with time, after years of compromise and routine. That means it’s about marriage, its lonelinesses and gloom, and the way longing for freedom from its prison can inspire thoughts of murder. Or perhaps it is a thriller, about men who love their wives but kill them, or simply wish they were dead. But at the root of it all is love, that most absurd and precious thing, and how hard it is to make it stay.
“When David Pepin first dreamed of killing his wife, he didn’t kill her himself. He dreamed convenient acts of God.” With this opening sentence, Mr Ross has got our attention. His hero, David, is a successful video-game designer in his 30s whose marriage has “existed in a state of stasis” for years. He and his wife, Alice, are university sweethearts whose charmed union took a hit once they began trying to have children. Some years and several miscarriages later, they have forgotten how to talk to each other. Alice has grown fat David is keeping secrets. Occasionally he imagines her falling victim to a freak accident—a tumbling crane, say, or spiralling helicopter. Something swift, efficient and blameless.

A. 어휘
nutty 미친, 열중한, 향기 높은. perverse 외고집의, 성질이 비뚤어진, 邪惡(사악)한.
glow 白熱(백열), 紅潮(홍조), 기쁨. routine 일상, 정례적인 일.
gloom 우울, 암흑. longing 갈망, 열망.
wish they were dead 죽었으면 좋겠다.(가정법 과거)
absurd 부조리한. precious 귀중한. convenient 편리한.
a state of stasis 停滯(정체) 상태. charmed 魔力(마력)에 걸린, 저주 받은.
took a hit 타격을 입다. miscarriages 流産(유산).
Occasionally 가끔. freak 갑작스러운 변화, 변덕, 괴물, 기묘한.
freak accident 기묘한 사고. tumbling crane 굴러 넘어지는 크레인.
spiralling 소용돌이치는, 螺旋形(나선형)으로 추락하는.
efficient 효율적인. blameless 죄 없는, 결백한.