SPOILERS - I don’t know if I have properly applied the tag

I heard and read loads of recommendations for this book, so I’ve just read it. I enjoyed it, and I loved the sort of ambiguous ending, but I was a bit confused with the author’s intentions around the Raphael character. We don’t get to know Raphael particularly well in the book, and that’s fine, but then towards the end of the book, we have an odd scene where two characters discuss all her great qualities for a few pages, then she gets two relatively lengthy comparisons to different statues, indicating to me the complexity of the feelings the main character has towards her. Problem is thst I, as the reader, didn’t feel any of those things towards the character. It felt like the author was shoehorning depth into the character for no reason. It really took me out of the story having to read how great other characters thought this character was. If you were watching a movie and you just had a relatively obscure character’s virtuous qualities listed like that, at the end of the movie no less, it would be bizarre.

I’ve heard authors talk about “show, don’t tell.” This seems like a great illustration of that point. The author doesn’t tell us that the main character is a good guy; we learn that and feel that ourselves. Sort of ruined the end of the book for me, which is a shame, because it was otherwise very good.

Thoughts?