All Fours

A primary character, the dynamic Davey Boutrous meets the narrator on her first day in Monrovia. She initially thinks he’s interested in spending time with her because he’s bored by his mundane existence, his unfulfilling job at Hertz, and his dull marriage to his wife Claire. However, Davey knows that the narrator is a minor celebrity and admires her work. He therefore orchestrated their meeting. During the narrator’s time in Monrovia, the two develop an intimate but nonsexual relationship. He falls in love with her but won’t articulate his feelings and refuses to have sex with her. He doesn’t want to betray his wife, Claire, and fears disrupting their marital arrangement and future. Thus, he’s a sensitive and emotionally complex character. For these reasons, the narrator is drawn to him. In addition, Davey can express himself in ways the narrator isn’t accustomed to in her other intimate relationships with men. In particular, Davey uses dance to convey his experiences and feelings in new ways. Watching him dance and dancing with him helps the narrator activate once-dormant parts of herself. Davey therefore helps her develop a new intimate and artistic mode of communicating.

Physically, Davey is an ordinary young man in his twenties. When the narrator first encounters him at the Monrovia gas station, she says that he has “a Huckleberry Finn/Gilbert Blythe look that [she] used to flip out over as a teenager” (31). He has “closely cropped hair and a downy little mustache” (31) that make him initially appear silly and childish. However, these facets of his appearance endear him to the narrator. Her sexual attraction to him is particularly strong when she sees his bare chest on a hike one day and when she sees him dancing in Room 321.

Davey’s character ultimately ushers the narrator toward personal and sexual freedom. She and Davey never have sex and don’t end up in a relationship. However, they share a profound emotional connection that helps her understand her need for newness, excitement, and inventive iterations of intimate connection. Ultimately, she makes peace with what she and Davey shared when she sees him perform in New York at the novel’s end. The performance lets her see Davey as his own person outside the context of their relationship for the first time, and she better understands his impact on her and his own autonomous way of being.

A secondary character, Harris is the narrator’s husband and Sam’s father. Harris loves the narrator but isn’t an emotive or a spontaneous person like his wife. The two share a formality that the narrator believes stems from the particular way that Harris moves through the world. She has done everything in her power to shield him from the most raw and idiosyncratic parts of herself. She loves her husband but she knows that she can’t fully be who she is in the context of their marriage. Rather, they work best together when they’re channeling their shared energies toward dire circumstances. They do well in emergencies and confront issues like Sam’s traumatic birth or the dog’s hair debacle with determination and resilience.

Throughout most of the novel, the narrator regards Harris as an obstacle to her self-discovery journey and her self-actualization. However, she’s reluctant to give up on their marriage even when she falls in love with Davey. She believes that she wants and needs Harris in her life because he grants her the illusion of stability, even if it threatens to suffocate her. Her outlook on Harris and their relationship changes once they open their marriage and start to date other people. This new arrangement grants them both new realms of experience and allows them to relate to each other in a more friendly, sustainable way.

A secondary character, Jordi is the narrator’s best friend and therefore acts as her archetypal guide throughout the novel. The narrator is “always [her]self with Jordi” (14) and therefore feels free and at ease when they spend time together or talk on the phone. They have a standing weekly get-together at Jordi’s sculpting studio, where they meet up to eat junk food and talk about life. Although Jordi is happily married to a woman named Mel, she doesn’t judge the narrator’s marital difficulties or cravings for sexual newness. Rather, Jordi is gracious, forgiving, and open-minded. She’s always there for the narrator and withholds judgment when the narrator shares intimate details of her life. However, Jordi never lies to the narrator. She doesn’t sanction her decisions, actions, or behaviors if she thinks the narrator is being rash. The narrator therefore trusts Jordi more than anyone else and can always rely on Jordi to be honest with her. Jordi supports and guides her throughout the novel. Jordi’s character reveals the importance of female friendship in a woman’s life. Jordi becomes a necessary constant in the narrator’s world, trumping the role of the husband as the narrator’s support system.