Olga

Olga is a 38-year-old married mother of two when the novel opens. While having had aspirations as a writer when she was younger, she put her career ambitions aside to follow her husband, Mario, around the world while he gained experience and stature as a university professor. Prior to Mario, Olga held a position in a complaints department of an airline and later on after her separation obtained a job at a travel agency.

Initially, Olga is a restrained woman of few words. While her home life growing up was filled with noisy and emotional family members, she herself had learned to keep her anxieties under control, although this would lead to emotional “implosion” (12).

Olga is scornful of her identity as mother, feeling that it strips her not only of her physical beauty but also her human dignity. Immediately after Mario leaves home she becomes negligent, in turn...