The Perfect Divorce

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, graphic violence, emotional abuse, and physical abuse.

Sarah Morgan is the main character of the novel. She is also one of the novel’s first-person narrators; the chapters titled with her name are written from her perspective. In the narrative present, Sarah is living a nominally happy life with Bob Miller and their daughter Summer until she discovers from her former boss Kent that Bob is cheating on her. Sarah wastes no time in filing for divorce, convinced that Bob is just like her ex-husband Adam; worse, Bob fulfills her expectations that he cannot be trusted, like all men.

Sarah’s readiness to turn on Bob and cut him out of her life captures her frustration with men. She has suffered a wealth of pain, violence, abuse, and trauma in her past. In the narrative present, she refuses to allow others to misuse her. She stands up for herself by fighting back. At the same time, Sarah is a woman of dichotomies. She presents a composed, contented, loving, and philanthropic persona to the world. She wants others to believe that she is grieving Adam and was betrayed by Bob, and she is determined to keep her true self hidden from the world.