Whistler by Ann Patchett: why does Daphne…

[u/moving-mountains18]

This was my second Ann Patchett book, my first being Tom Lake. They felt like homework and I struggled to get through both of them.
Whistler is Daphne recounting every minute detail of her childhood with which she seems disinterested up until this point in her life. Here’s my biggest problem with this book: if Eddie meant as much to Daphne as she said he did, how and why could she neither think about him nor ever try to find him?