A primary supporting character, Amy is Tom’s wife and Michael and Miri’s mother. Like Tom, she’s middle-aged and preparing to enter the empty nest phase of her parenting and marital life. Unlike Tom, Amy is more willing to express her emotions and to let others see her vulnerability. Often, she snaps at Miri for behaving in a way she doesn’t approve of or for refusing to take herself and her responsibilities more seriously. According to Tom’s narration, Amy and Miri have always had a fraught relationship. Their constant bickering creates narrative tension in Tom’s home and family life throughout Chapter 1. Amy also snaps at Tom for his apathy, for refusing to support her, and for being emotionally detached. Tom shows little sign of caring about Amy’s emotional life and either falls asleep or removes himself from the room when she’s upset.

In the context of Amy and Tom’s marriage, Tom paints himself as the proverbial “good guy” and his wife as the “bad guy.” He particularly blames Amy for the state of their loveless marriage because she “had an affair with a guy called Zach Zirsky” (1), 12 years before the narrative present. Despite the time that has passed since this affair, Tom remains embittered toward his wife. He filters everything Amy does and says through the context of her infidelity. His inability to forgive or move past this incident conveys his refusal to confront his emotions. He feels threatened by the affair, as if it’s evidence that he isn’t good enough for Amy. Additionally, Tom is afraid of truly reflecting on his own stasis and his responsibility in the marriage. Instead, he blames Amy for being ungrateful for the life he has provided for her, for being bored and helpless, and for using the affair to fill the void she felt.

While Tom often homes in on Amy’s negative qualities and all the ways she has changed for the worse, he also underscores how physically attractive she is. His imbalanced descriptions render Amy a caricature of the beautiful, miserable wife: “She’s about five-ten, with terrific posture” and “has long brown curly hair, which she wears past her shoulders, and a strong handsome Waspy face” (5). Amy thus reads like a trope: Although she’s difficult, angry, and outspoken, Tom feels endeared to her because she’s physically attractive.

Throughout the novel, Amy struggles to adjust to Miri’s departure for college. Markovits uses Amy’s character as a narrative device to depict the thematic experience of Navigating Identity in Middle Age from the maternal and female perspective. However, because the novel is written from Tom’s point of view, Amy’s experience of aging and letting go of her children is marginal and lacks nuance. The same is true of her marital experience, which is likewise filtered through Tom’s consciousness. While she and Tom reconcile (as a result of his illness) by the end of the novel, Amy is the one who must make amends and pursue change.

Another supporting character is Tom and Amy’s son, Michael. When Amy first got pregnant with Michael, she “felt disappointed—she’d wanted a girl. But she never had trouble with Michael, he was her little helper” (19). Michael maintains this “helper” role in the narrative present, too. Over the years, however, he has distanced himself from his family for his own self-preservation. Tom asserts that this is because he’s simply “one of those young people who decides that contact with their family isn’t a source of happiness, so you have to limit it to unavoidable occasions” (27). Although he no longer spends much time at home, Michael is devoted to his parents and his younger sister, Miri.

Tom has never had as close a relationship with Michael as with Miri. Tom is convinced that Michael blames him for Amy’s affair and for pulling away from Amy thereafter. Ever since, Tom has felt that he and Michael have “a slightly competitive relationship” (27). Despite this dynamic, Michael shows concern for his father when he notices that Tom looks unwell. In addition, he spends time playing basketball with his dad, asking about his life and job, and giving him advice. These behaviors suggest that Michael doesn’t disdain his family but has set healthy boundaries with them while still participating in their lives.

Michael becomes the “savior figure” in Tom’s story at the novel’s end. He welcomes his father to his home when Tom arrives in California unannounced. He then invites him to spend time with his friends and meet his girlfriend, and he accompanies Tom to his father’s grave. When Tom falls ill, Michael gets him to the hospital and stays by his side throughout his care. These actions prove Michael’s strength and integrity of character. His traits contrast with Tom’s.

Another secondary character is Miriam (Miri), Michael’s younger sister and Tom and Amy’s daughter. At the start of the novel, Miri’s departure for college is the inciting incident that inspires Tom’s road trip. Her plans to leave home alter Tom’s expectations of the future and challenge him to reflect on his life, his work, and his marriage for the first time.

Throughout the novel, Tom repeatedly remarks on how similar Miri is to him. In a moment of introspection, he insists that this is why he has always had trouble confronting Miri for misbehaving, being lazy, or showing disrespect. Even when Amy worries over Miri’s habit of quitting everything she starts, Tom shows no signs of concern because he doesn’t see this as a character flaw: “Miri liked to try things and then quit” (20). Rather, he regards her seeming flakiness as evidence of her self-possession; she tests things out, decides she doesn’t like them, and then moves on to something else she might like better.

Miri’s departure for college spurs Tom’s cross-country trip. His and Miri’s conversations on the way to Carnegie Mellon reveal Tom’s desire to relate to others more authentically. He and Miri don’t resolve anything in their dialogues or even make peace with her departure, but these scenes suggest Tom’s willingness to be emotionally vulnerable and to change.