Perfect Strangers

James is Olivia’s romantic interest. He is portrayed as a paragon of contemporary masculinity. While he’s assertive, he doesn’t proceed without Olivia’s consent. He’s also an artist and he’s exceedingly handsome, and with his character, Geissinger manages to both use and subvert romance conventions. Olivia gushes, “Maybe God doesn’t hate me so much after all, because if he, she, or it did, I’d never have been given something as incredible as this. He’s. Fucking. Perfect” (132). Even after Olivia realizes he’s an assassin, James remains “perfect” due to his moral code—he presents as an assassin with integrity. As with Olivia, James’s surface identity alters over the course of the novel, but his core personality remains constant. Like Olivia, he’s humorous and thoughtful. In life-or-death situations, like the shootout, James keeps the mood light, joking with Olivia about potential honeymoon spots.

James has no double in the psychiatric center, which suggests that he’s too ideal to have a connection to that reality. Conversely, the Epilogue reveals Olivia’s true reality, and James is a part of that. He’s an artist, and he has many of the traits that made him extremely desirable in Paris. At the same time, the James in the Epilogue also becomes slightly more realistic. He’s not an assassin, nor does he have a 12-inch penis. In some ways, however, he still remains in Olivia’s control: She features James in many of her novels, but continually reinvents him.

In the Paris section, Chris is Olivia’s ex-husband and former romantic interest, and he’s also the reason Emerson is dead. In that storyline, Chris was a congressperson before he became the United States ambassador to the UN, and he uses his government influence to profit off the illicit international arms trade. Chris’s nefarious occupation makes him an antagonist in the Paris story. James reinforces Chris’s toxic characterization when he says, “I’ll never be like him. He doesn’t care who he hurts[…] He sells weapons that destroy everything they touch, and he does it without a second thought to the consequences” (452). Yet Olivia, as the author, gives Chris redeemable traits in her development of the character. She thinks Chris divorced her to keep her safe; though he loved her, he selflessly let her go because he does care who he hurts.

In the psychiatric center storyline, Chris is Olivia’s antagonist. She presents him as a slob, a bad father, and unfaithful. Nevertheless, Chris visits Olivia and picks her up in a wheelchair-accessible van, illustrating that he’s not entirely negligent or indifferent. In the Epilogue, however, Chris is rather innocuous. He’s Olivia’s ex-husband and the ambassador to the UN, but he’s not an arms dealer.

Kelly is Olivia’s close friend and sidekick in Paris and the psychiatric center storylines. In both contexts, Kelly, like Olivia, is playful and opinionated. In France, she and Olivia share their unfiltered opinions about sex, and she gives Olivia an opportunity to talk about James. Through Kelly’s husband, Mike, Olivia learns that James has ALS, so Kelly is responsible for one of the plot twists. As Mike has more in common with the psychiatric center Chris than James, Kelly becomes Olivia’s foil. She doesn’t have a partner that she can have powerful sexual experiences with, so she lives vicariously through Olivia. Kelly doesn’t appear in the Epilogue, though she could be an amalgamation of Olivia’s “brunch” girlfriends.

Kelly provides numerous hints about the twists. She brings up Olivia’s antidepressants, foreshadowing the reveal of her mental illness. She also reminds Olivia, “You’re a fiction writer. You make things up for a living. And you exaggerate more than anyone else I know” (90). The quote is a clue to the two central twists. The psychiatric center Olivia isn’t a fiction writer, but she invented the story nonetheless and published a book. The Epilogue Oliva, the real Olivia, is a fiction writer, and she made up everything. Kelly proves to be central to the plot, offering hints that foreshadow the truth.

In France, Edmond is the building manager. He’s a secondary character who represents a stereotypical Frenchman. He’s a proud womanizer, boasting, “I once had an Italian mistress named Sophia who stabbed me six times in the neck with a fountain pen when she caught me looking at another woman” (42). He then adds that the woman was Sophia’s sister. Yet, in France, Edmond doesn’t have a critical impact on Olivia or James.

In the psychiatric center, Edmond becomes Dr. Chevalier—Olivia’s main psychiatrist partly inspires the Edmond in her fantasy. Yet Dr. Chevalier isn’t like Edmond. He’s thoughtful and quiet, and he helps Olivia confront reality. He tells Olivia, “[I]f it seems too good to be true, it is […] No one can offer you proof of reality, not even Einstein himself. But just because it can’t be proven doesn’t mean the sun won’t rise tomorrow. It will” (515). Dr. Chevalier’s definition makes the psychiatric center seem more real than the Epilogue, which, in comparison, remains “too good to be true.”

Gigi and Gaspard are Olivia’s attractive neighbors in France. They occupy an apartment across the courtyard, and Olivia can see and hear them have sex. Though they’re minor characters, they’re not insignificant to the plot. They establish the erotic elements of the novel immediately and introduce the theme of Exploring the Intersection of Feminism and Sexual Desire. Their sex inspires Olivia to masturbate, and it creates a model for her to follow with James. In Chapter 21, James and Olivia literally emulate Gigi and Gaspard: They have sex while they watch Gigi and Gaspard have sex. Together, the four characters create a poetic moment, with Olivia writing, “[T]he warm Paris night breathes in the sounds of four lovers’ passion” (365). Later, in the psychiatric center storyline, Gigi and Gaspard are revealed to be fellow patients who have little to no contact with each other, emphasizing the gap between the two realities that Olivia has developed.

Maria is Olivia’s at-home caretaker in the psychiatric center storyline. She’s from Germany, and her name alludes to the resilient nanny, Maria, in The Sound of Music. Maria gives Olivia another friend, which helps counter the bleak presentation of her reality. Despite her situation, she still forms meaningful connections. More so, Maria plays with gender norms and has links with the James in the Paris storyline. James visits Germany, and he threatens to harm Chris. Maria offers to smother Chris with a pillow after Maria and Olivia hear him speaking to his girlfriend. Like James, Maria functions as Olivia’s protector.

Estelle is Olivia’s fashionable, eclectic literary agent. She’s the reason why Olivia is in France. Olivia stays in her stylish apartment, so Estelle is central to the story. Without Estelle, Olivia must find another way to get to France. The dialogue between Olivia and Estelle also regularly touches on the difference between genres and the theme of shaping reality through storytelling. Estelle advances the stigma attached to erotica and erudition that’s associated with literary fiction. At the same time, she becomes a stand-in for the reader. In the Epilogue, she tells Olivia, “You’re a terrible human being. How could you do that to me?” (546). The statement anticipates the reception of Geissinger’s book, reflecting Estelle’s status as a representative of the novel’s readers.