Chapter 4: Margaret and Ivan Reunite

Spoiler Warning

This page contains detailed spoilers for Chapter 4 of Intermezzo. If you haven’t finished reading this chapter, you may want to do so before continuing.

Summary

The chapter opens on Thursday afternoon with Margaret at her job in the arts centre—handing keys to Alannah, grabbing a coffee from Doreen, and chatting with colleague Linda about the ever-absent director David. After work, she visits her friend Anna, who again brings up genetically modified mosquitoes. Margaret shifts the conversation to the chess club event, describing how a player from Dublin beat ten locals at once, including a ten-year-old. Anna wishes she’d known so her son Luke could have joined; Margaret notes Luke plays chess but avoids saying more about her own connection to the visiting grandmaster—Ivan.

Later, at home, alone with a chicken dinner and the prospect of calling her mother about a dishwasher, Margaret rehearses the inevitable mention of ex-husband Ricky. She thinks about Ivan, whose number she still has, and the intimacy they shared in the cold bungalow. After a cello recital that evening—where she ushers patrons and later drives the cellist—she finally dials him. Ivan, crouching beside his charging phone in his flat while flatmates Roland and Julia occupy the kitchen, answers eagerly. They talk, and she admits she’s been thinking of him; he replies he’s thought of her “a lot.” He asks to see her again; she hesitates because they’re “at very different stages in our lives.” He suggests they could just talk, and she agrees.

On Saturday night, Margaret waits at the bus stop. Ivan alights, tall and quiet, and they drive to her rented cottage. Over tea in her kitchen, he opens up about his precarious work situation, his stalled chess career, his father’s death, and his strained family dynamics. He shares his regrets about not being better to his dad and his loneliness—he feels he bores people. Margaret, moved, tells him she’s interested. They kiss, and soon they are in bed. For Ivan, it’s a revelation of mutual desire, unlike any previous encounter; for Margaret, it’s a profound physical and emotional relief. Afterward, she cries quietly in his arms, and he comforts her with an ease he didn’t know he possessed.

The next morning, they make love again, and he talks about chess with a renewed, childlike enthusiasm. They walk along a laneway behind the cottage, the air clear and cold. Ivan takes a call from his brother Peter; when asked if he’s with someone, he says yes but gives no details. Margaret wonders what Peter would say if he knew her age and marital history, and she worries about her ex-husband’s reaction. Ivan reassures her that it’s her life. The chapter closes with them walking in golden-green fields, watched by a black-faced sheep, birdsong filling the limitless air around them.

Key Events

Margaret’s workday: handing keys, chatting with Linda, noticing David’s absence.
In Anna’s garden, Margaret describes the chess event but conceals her personal involvement.
Alone at the cottage, she wrestles with whether to call Ivan and rehearses the phone call with her mother about Ricky.
She finally calls Ivan; after a tentative exchange, they agree to meet “just to talk.”
Ivan takes a bus to her town; Margaret picks him up and drives him to her cottage.
Over tea, Ivan discusses his unemployment, chess disillusionment, his father’s death, and his family—revealing his deep loneliness.
They share their first kiss since the chess event, then undress and have sex, experiencing a mutual passion that is new for Ivan and deeply consoling for Margaret.
Post-coital, Margaret cries; Ivan comforts her without panic.
Next morning, they make love again and talk about chess, with Ivan showing a revived joy.
On the walk, Ivan takes Peter’s call, admitting he’s with someone but withholding details.
Margaret voices anxiety about what her ex-husband and others would think; Ivan says it’s her life.
The scene ends in pastoral tranquility, with the two of them walking through fields and birdsong.

Character Development

Margaret spends most of the chapter torn between desire and self-judgment. Her day is filled with routine and role-playing: dutiful daughter, responsible arts-worker, polite friend. But her internal life is consumed by the memory of Ivan. The decision to call him is a significant rebellion—she knows it’s unwise yet cannot resist the pull of being wanted after years of emotional famine. Her crying after sex reveals long-buried pain, perhaps about her marriage, and she finally allows herself to be held. Yet by morning she is still calculating how the relationship looks to the outside world, showing that her conflict is far from resolved.

Ivan continues to surprise. He starts the chapter scrolling through search results, missing his dead father and his dog, and feeling socially awkward. The phone call transforms him: he is direct about wanting to see her, even when rebuffed, and he negotiates a “just talking” scenario with gentle persistence. In her kitchen he becomes a candid conversationalist, sharing his insecurities, his grief, and his feeling that he bores people. The sexual encounter is, from his perspective, a first experience of total mutual understanding, and his retrospective monologue contrasts it sharply with all his disappointments before. Comforting Margaret when she cries is another breakthrough—he realizes he can be the steady partner, not the anxious one. The chapter thus deepens his sensitivity while also revealing his raw need for connection.

Secondary characters like Anna and Peter hover at the edges. Anna remains oblivious to Margaret’s secret, symbolizing the widening gap between Margaret’s public and private selves. Peter’s phone call and Ivan’s evasive answer hint at future complications within the Koubek family.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Age-Gap and Social Norms: Margaret’s repeated insistence that they are “at very different stages” and her worry about what her ex-husband or Ivan’s brother would think foreground the societal pressure against such a relationship. Ivan dismisses the gap, but the chapter makes the tension palpable.
Grief and Isolation: Both protagonists are grieving—Ivan his father, Margaret the life she once had (and perhaps her dignity after a bad marriage). Their loneliness is what makes the connection so intense and necessary.
Mutual Desire as Healing: Ivan experiences, for the first time, being desired by someone he himself desires; Margaret experiences being seen and wanted without performance. The chapter treats their physical intimacy as not just sex but as a restoration of their sense of worth.
Secrecy and Morality: Margaret’s internal debate about whether the relationship is “wrong” frames the entire chapter. The secrecy is necessary for now, but it also builds a private world that contrasts with the public roles they both play.
Pastoral Imagery: The laneway, the black-faced sheep, the golden-green fields, and the sweet birdcall at the end offer a visual relief from the cramped indoor spaces of work, Anna’s garden, and the cottage kitchen. It suggests a momentary Eden where, despite all complications, the two can simply exist together.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 4 transforms a fleeting weekend encounter into an ongoing, secret relationship. It moves the story from initial fascination to genuine emotional and physical entanglement. The chapter also deepens the reader’s understanding of both main characters: Margaret’s cautious, self-lacerating conscience and Ivan’s surprising capacity for tender care. Their conversation about jobs, family, and grief anchors the affair in real-life burdens, making it both more serious and more precarious. The chapter ends with a symbolic idyll—a golden walk—which will likely be tested as external pressures (family, ex-spouses, public scrutiny) intrude. This is the seed of the central love story and the engine of future conflict.

Study Questions and Answers

How does Margaret’s internal debate about calling Ivan illustrate her struggle between desire and social acceptability? Margaret knows that pursuing a 22-year-old after a chance sexual encounter violates every norm she has internalized. She worries about “life stages,” her ex-husband’s reaction, and what her friends would think. Yet the pull of being desired fuels her rebellion. Her hesitation and ultimate decision show that personal fulfillment often requires transgressing unwritten social rules.
In what ways does Ivan’s experience of sex with Margaret differ from his past encounters, and what does this reveal about him? He describes past experiences as one-sided, awkward, or purely physical. With Margaret, he feels a complete “interpenetration of thought,” where her desire matches his. This new mutuality allows him to drop his usual anxiety and for the first time feel capable and needed—revealing that beneath his social clumsiness is a longing for a real emotional bond, not just physical intimacy.
What role does the landscape play in the closing scene, and how does it relate to the chapter’s themes? The walk along the laneway, with sheep, fallen leaves, and clear blue air, offers a stark contrast to the claustrophobic interiors earlier. It represents a temporary refuge where the couple can exist without judgment. The natural beauty mirrors the purity of their connection, suggesting that away from societal eyes, their bond is innocent and nourishing—even if it cannot last.

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