A. Alvarez

However bad a marriage may be, it is based on a kind of loyalty, to one’s choice as much as to one’s partner. Once that fundamental loyalty collapses beyond repair, the marriage becomes merely a flag of convenience. And divorce, for all the blind waste involved, may become the only saving option.

Author of two books of criticism and an anthology of contemporary poetry, A. ALVAREZwas born in 1929 in London, where he now lives as a free-lance writer. He is a frequent visitor to the United States and in 1960-1961 was professor of English at Brandeis University. He has visited Auschwitz twice during the past year.