In many ways, the novel is a journey from romanticism towards a more psychological form of love. It's looking deliberately at this thing called roman love, which is an ideology that tells us things like 'a lover will make you complete' And so i say at one point that they learn that love is not just a feeling, an enthusiasm, but a skill. I'm summarizing it brutally. It's much more complicated than that.
Debbie talks to Alain de Botton about love and sex.