Crossing To Safety: Opinions?

Two years ago when Dan was begging me to get back together with him, I gave him my copy of Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety and told him, "Read this. This is what I think relationships are about. They are hard and they are full of love and sacrifice and hope and despair. If you read this and still want to be in this with me, then I know this has a chance of working."

He read it and meanwhile I decided that he maybe wasn't the best person for me and then when I told him I didn't think I could be with him again he called me chickenshit and said, in some despair "Then why did you have me read that book?"

Before I left for Norway I took that same book off the shelf formally known as ours and Dan asked, "Why are you taking that? You already read it." And I told him that I needed to be reminded of what relationships were and how one went about being in them, in spite of the damage, in spite of the problems.

"I found that book depressing and a terrible view of what a relationship was," he shot back.

Pow. Right through the heart on that one. Maybe he was talking about Sid and Charity? But no--he thought that Sally was taken advantage of by Larry, that they had a shitty relationship.

?

So, any opinions from you Stegnerphiles out there? I'd love to get some input on this one. Because I am baffled.