What did you think of Ken?

Use this forum to discuss the January 2019 Book of the month "Winning the War on Cancer" by Sylvie Beljanski
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Zora C Penter
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Re: What did you think of Ken?

Post by Zora C Penter »

I almost wonder if Ken didn't cheat on Sylvie based on the interaction at the conference where she met the doctor from CIRIS. It did not seem like the first time that she had seen him chatting up other women.
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Post by Faithmwangi »

The book does not major on Ken and it would be unfair to judge him based on Sylvie's opinions of him.
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Post by Bavithra M »

According to me Ken is a good person. Slyvia's opinion on Ken is totally unacceptable.
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Post by briellejee »

Faithmwangi wrote: 19 Jan 2019, 11:20 The book does not major on Ken and it would be unfair to judge him based on Sylvie's opinions of him.
I agree! That is overall biased.
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Post by rubinelli »

Although he did help Sylvie Beljanski start the Beljanski foundation, the author describes him as emotionally unavailable. While I do think it was nice of him to travel with her to various events and gatherings, I do not think that he offered the support that Beljanski clearly needed. He was rather annoyed when she woke up in the middle of the night to try and trademark her name, and he wasn’t there for her in the hospital. He failed to see that starting the foundation was her passion.
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Post by mamilla93 »

Sylvie has the right to opinion that ken was being emotionally available . We do not know all the details about their personal life and things like helping her start the foundation do not reflect his emotional availability.
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Post by KSaxer »

From the first interaction shared with us, something about his responses was off. He did help her get started, but he wasn't very encouraging while he did that. I felt she was better off without him. I did wonder why he wasn't at the hospital when she had her hemorrhage event.
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Post by dreamthewilderness »

We don't get a very cleaf picture of Ken, do we? Afterall, his importance to the book is entirely dependent upon Sylvie's perspective of him. I wouldn't pretend to know anything about the real Ken.
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Post by a9436 »

I am not sure I learned enough to judge, and I also feel that Ken was not vital to the book, so I did not think too much about him.
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Post by fictaddict »

Some people are able to take supportive actions, but not express themselves well, maybe this is true for Ken. Also, it's possible there's more she didn't tell readers, either to protect his privacy or because it doesn't really relate to the main topic.
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Zora C Penter
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Post by Zora C Penter »

fictaddict wrote: 06 Feb 2019, 20:57 Some people are able to take supportive actions, but not express themselves well, maybe this is true for Ken. Also, it's possible there's more she didn't tell readers, either to protect his privacy or because it doesn't really relate to the main topic.
I had this impression as well. I think that there was more to the story than was explicitly stated, particularly his actions around other women.
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Post by NuelUkah »

Alicia09 wrote: 08 Jan 2019, 18:27 Ken helped Sylvie start her non-profit organization called the "Beljanski Foundation". He also traveled with her to numerous conventions to share her father's research. Yet in Chapter 9, Sylvie described him as "emotionally unavailable" and chose to file for divorce. What was your overall opinion of Ken?
It's not easy having a spouse that travels a lot. Ken tried to be there for her as much as he could. Sylvie to later describe him as being emotionally unavailable is weird. Even at that, it's not enough reason to divorce someone who has helped her achieve so much. Perhaps her work may not be a success by now if not for Ken. So, if he was emotionally unavailable, was divorce the right decision. This part was almost a killjoy. Good thing Sylvie and Ken's marriage wasn't the focus of the book.
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Post by Jessacardinal »

I think it is clear Ken and Sylvie have different passions in life and are better off moving on in life without one another.
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Post by Macanthony »

Though Ken wasn't a major character I disagree with sylvie his is emotionally available and a great character.
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Post by sush_destiny »

He did help Sylvie with the organization, so ,yes, he is a good person, but that has nothing to do with their relationship. I will take Sylvie's word for not being emotionally unavailable.
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