nondesperate

— For Jean, who has found working from the island — with its “miniature rain forest and ... the jammed markets, the friendly, nondesperate people, the bright and thrillingly imperiled birdlife” — something of a “prolonged junket with sunshine and copy,” and who still thinks that a bit of jam stuck to the corner of her longtime husband’s mouth at breakfast is somehow endearing, the prospect of blowing up the marriage is fairly daunting.