Bill is Joan’s second husband; they marry when Joan is in her twenties and Bill is in his fifties, and they are married for 13 years. Bill has had three wives and two children prior to meeting Joan; he is charmed by Joan’s youthful curiosity about the world around her and her frank, unpretentious nature. Bill is a successful real estate investor who both inherits generational wealth and compounds his fortune through shrewd business decisions during his lifetime. However, Bill is not always as savvy as he thinks he is. He overspends, gives too much money to his son, Theo, and makes some bad investments. Bill enjoys displaying his power and wealth and this is manifested primarily through his love for Falling House. Bill is often loving and generous toward Joan, but he is also quite selfish. He fails to appreciate how much his family mistreats her, both because Joan is Asian and because they assume she is only attracted to Bill’s money. Bill is also not enthusiastic about having more children: For him, this chapter of life has come and gone, and he doesn’t realize how important this is for Joan. Finally, Bill is repeatedly unfaithful to Joan and when she questions him, he merely states “I suppose I’ve never been too good at compromising” (120).

At the end of his life, Bill is anxious and afraid. He becomes embittered when anyone around him seems to be enjoying themselves and constantly expresses his wish that he had more time. Despite everything he has accomplished, Bill doesn’t feel any sense of peace when facing his death. Because Bill’s sense of identity is so rooted in his success, prestige, and personal enjoyment, he dies unsure of what his legacy truly is.

Misty is Bill’s youngest sibling and Lee’s biological mother. Shortly after Jamie is born, Misty confides to Joan that she is pregnant, even though she seems ill equipped to become a parent. When Lee is an infant, Misty decides that she is not interested in raising her child and Joan and Bill eventually adopt Lee. While Misty makes a selfish decision, she is matter of fact about it and her choice does not seem to have detrimental effects on Lee or Joan. In fact, Joan is secretly delighted to have a second child to nurture and love. Misty goes on to live a somewhat aimless, free-spirited life but she seems happy in her choices and maintains a loving relationship with both Lee and Joan. In fact, Misty is the only one of Bill’s siblings who develops a sustained relationship with Joan. Because Joan does not judge others, she is able to feel compassion toward Misty and because Misty does not care about social nuances, she does not display the same racist and snobbish attitudes that the other siblings do. Misty’s unconventional choices lead to her serving as a foil for Joan’s character; while Misty is much more reckless than Joan, she models the power of leading a radically self-determined life.

Jamie is the biological son of Joan and Bill. He is born into a life of privilege in California, but loses his father at a young age. Jamie studies business at the University of Pennsylvania and then works briefly as an investment banker in New York before enlisting in the US Army. Jamie serves in Iraq, where he is eventually injured in an attack that kills his best friend. After being discharged, he returns to California and works first for a tech company, and then eventually full time at Joan’s café. Jamie does not like confrontation and always tries to make everyone happy; he reflects that, “his entire life, Jamie would have trouble with his desire to please” (243). Because of his desire not to cause any conflict, Jamie can drift toward the path of least resistance and end up feeling unfulfilled. He studies business because he thinks it will make Joan happy, and he ends up working at the tech company without having any understanding of the company’s mission or goals. Jamie struggles with making lasting romantic connections because he feels purposeless in life and also unworthy of love; when his girlfriend Chloe breaks up with him, “he’d been reminded of all her good attributes, the most attractive of which was that she no longer found him desirable” (297). His tendency to drift through life is exemplified by his risky practice of sometimes closing his eyes while driving at high speed. Jamie experiences limited growth or development over the course of the novel, but Joan’s death does seem to prompt him to realize that he needs to find greater meaning. In the final chapter, he promises Lee to stop driving with his eyes closed, admitting that “I got sick of it” (336). This statement and decision implies that Jamie is going to take a more intentional and purposeful approach to his life.

Lee is the adopted daughter of Joan and Bill; she is the biological daughter of Bill’s younger sister, Misty. Lee seems to adapt and cope well with the transition to a new family, which occurs when she is an infant. She grows up adored by her parents and brother but suffers after Bill dies when she is still a child. Lee rebels by pursuing relationships with older men, beginning with a relationship with one of her teachers while she is in high school. She does not take Joan’s rebukes seriously because she thinks Joan (who married a much older man) is hypocritical. Like her brother, Lee’s life is shaped by a sense of passivity; she drifts from a career in accounting into working for a clothing designer but ends up returning to live with Joan after she loses her job. Lee follows her fiancé, Marc, to London but returns to California after that relationship collapses. At the end of the novel, Lee muses that she “knew she wouldn’t change. She’d keep doing it this way, she’d keep trying new things and different people until she felt how she thought she should” (337). While Lee does not experience much development as a character, she does achieve a deeper sense of self-awareness and knowledge of how much she values the people she loves. The loss of Joan prompts Lee to become more reflective and to acknowledge the patterns in her life, even if she does not think that she is going to change them.

Nelson is Bill’s lawyer who becomes a family friend to both Bill and eventually Joan. Nelson manages Bill’s prenups and divorces; he meets with Joan to discuss her prenuptial agreement and is surprised when Joan shrewdly asks for an ownership stake in Bill’s valuable house. Nelson ends up with intimate access to many of the emotional and psychological dynamics of Bill’s blended family; he attends both Bill’s wedding and funeral and knows information about Bill’s will before his own children do. After Bill’s death, Nelson remains close with Joan and provides legal advice and occasional financial advice. Nelson is wary about Joan’s decision to open the café but ends up finding the business very comforting. Nelson becomes such an intertwined part of the family that he is the first one to learn of Joan’s death and he also breaks the news to her children that she died by suicide. Readers also get small glimpses into Nelson’s personal life, but he functions primarily as an outside observer who brings perspective into the lives of the primary characters.