This passage is from The Children's Bach by Helen Garner
How fresh and pretty he looked, sitting at her piano in his clean white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the top button fastened! She said, ‘You look gorgeous!’
He laughed and looked down. ‘What was that you were listening to?’
‘Haydn. It’s in C major. Isn’t that supposed to be the optimistic key? I could never understand why I always felt so cheerful after I’d heard that concerto, till I thought what key it was in.’ She blushed: what an idiotic generalisation. Surely musicians were beyond such crassness. Nerves cause chatter. Least said soonest mended.
‘Let’s go somewhere?’ he said.
‘Where?’
‘Just out. Look at things.’
‘Wait till I get my bag.’
She stood in the middle of the bedroom and looked at the rows of books. She read novels fast, lying for hours on her side holding the book open on the other pillow; they blurred into one another and were gone. Great passions are ridiculous, she thought, although it is terribly cathartic to have felt. She imagined that Philip had indulged in sexual perversions with strangers. Every man she met was inferior to Dexter, but only, perhaps, because she had chosen that this should be the case.
a:
Does "they" in the sentence "they blurred into one another and were gone" refer to "she and her books" and the sentence mean she became immersed in reading?
does "they" refer to "books" and the whole sentence mean "because she quickly read the novels and these books very soon were forgotten"
b:
Does "although it is terribly cathartic to have felt" in the sentence "passions are ridiculous, she thought, although it is terribly cathartic to have felt" mean "although it is too soothing to have great passion"?
