I think that Iris was the most mature and decent character in the book. She could have been Roy's salvation, but he was too shallow and immature to realise it.
Somewhere upthread,
issybird commented on the oddness of Memo's name. I was wondering about the name for which it could be an abbreviation, and recalled coming across someone many years ago whose name was Memory. Perhaps she was attractive to Roy because in some way she reminded him of his mother. Harriet also it would seem. I just did a search of the book for the word "mother", and came up with the following from early on in the book when he was talking to Harriet:
Quote:
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Her eyes were sad. He felt a curious tenderness for her, a little as if she might be his mother (That bird.) and tried very hard to come up with the answer she wanted—something you said about LIFE.
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