Here's an interesting question to consider: should the characters in the novel been judged for their indiscretions? The offensiveness of their behavior seems to elicit that question in the reader, because the reader will have to make decisions about people sleeping with their daughter's husband, or a friend of a friend, or a business partner, or a celebrity, or each other—this book is full of indiscretions. But perhaps by zooming out of the specific moral questions, we would see the bigger picture about the novel—that it a picture of an animal community in their mating rituals.
There is good reason to interpret the plot this way. First of all, there is the religious experience Suwelo has with "Lissie," who is merely a manifestation of voices he hears but doesn't quite understand completely. The personality is part of his perception of reality, and she teaches him about sexual desire, about his own incompetence, and eventually, she helps him to accept his fate.
This happens when Lissie explains that she is actually a spiritual entity who reincarnates throughout the generations. She takes him back to his ancestors, who are also her ancestors, and she explains that she still has memories of their lives on the Veldt. The idea here is that although "Lissie" is an imagined character, she is all the people at once. If Lissie is part of Suwelo's mind, then the correct interpretation might be that by becoming one with his ancestors, Suwelo learned the value of committed marriage—for the efficient transfer of life from one generation to another through family.
