Love and Loss in Robert Kendall's "A Life Set for Two"

By Ewan Matthews, 6 June, 2018
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Abstract (in English)

The sixth chapter in Rebooting Electronic Literature: Documenting Pre-Web Born Digital Media (2018) about Robert Kendall's narrative poem, A Life Set for Two, contains Dene Grigar's essay, entitled "Love and Loss in Robert Kendall's A Life Set for Two. Along with providing general information about the production of the work, the essay also analyzes the poem from the perspective of the themes of love and loss. 

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"We’ve all been there––well, maybe most of us––in that relationship in which neither of you want to be but are too cowardly to end. Each of you dish out insults to the other and consume the other’s in return in the hope that one day your lover will be fed up enough to leave and you get off guilt-free. In this life you had set for two, what you think you're hoping for, ultimately, is a life alone––at least until you find yourself that way. This experience is all too familiar and all too human, and it is one chronicled in Robert Kendall’s long narrative poem, A Life Set for Two. Situated in a café, the story unfolds through the metaphor of two different menus––one belonging to the male narrator recounting the failed affair to us and other belonging to his lover."--Dene Grigar

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