The Story of Arthur Truluv

“A promise is a promise, even if it’s only one you made to yourself.”

This quote exemplifies Arthur’s character traits of loyalty, devotion, and consistency. Despite bad weather or poor health, he is committed to visiting Nola’s grave each day. It is an example of the principled and steadfast way Arthur conducts himself.

“She can sing, she’s a good dancer, she can curl her tongue on demand, every dog and cat on the street comes up to her, she’s an amazingly fast reader. Now she can show someone everything: her heart, her humor, her loyalty.”

A key facet of Maddy’s personality is that she longs to be seen for who she truly is rather than how others perceive her. She is misunderstood and shunned by her peers and dismissed by Anderson as “just” a kid, but this passage illustrates how she is seeking love and stability. This opportunity will come from an unlikely source in her relationships with Arthur and Lucille.

“He supposes a great many ills of adults might be cured by a nap or a good meal or a bit of timely reassurance. But adults complicate everything.”

Arthur often has profound and perceptive thoughts on life and people, and this passage highlights his belief that young children have good reason to be difficult as they are often tired, hungry, or afraid. Similarly, adults could use similar caretaking; for example, Arthur is a protective and loving force in Maddy’s life and seems to instinctively know what she needs.

“Isn’t it funny. All the years they’ve lived next door to each other and so rarely do they cross each other’s thresholds. He liked it better when he was a kid and he and his friends ran into and out of each other’s houses as though they lived in all of them.”

Arthur’s commentary on his interactions with Lucille show where their relationship is currently and foreshadows where it will go. Their eventual found family and home together harkens back to his experience as a child when houses were almost communal spaces.

“Smile and the world smiles with you. All the world loves a lover.”

This passage refers to Lucille’s change in disposition when she reconnects with Frank and is overcome with excitement about the prospect of new love. It also demonstrates one of Berg’s techniques of offering insightful wisdom and reflections on life through her characters.

“She liked looking at the things in his house; she told him she liked old things, and Arthur was startled into realizing that they were old things, everything in his house was old.”

This passage illustrates the generational divide between Maddy and Arthur. Arthur is surprised that the things in his house are considered old, an example of The Experiences and Emotions of Aging. It also demonstrates their connection despite an age gap because Maddy appreciates the old things and Arthur for exactly who he is.

“Maddy wants to belong. She wants them to stop picking on her. She has thought and thought about how she might change things, she has tried to come up with solutions—funny, creative, tough, plainspoken, and sincere, but she has not been able to change anything.”

In this passage, Berg offers an example of Maddy’s introspection. Maddy is trying to understand her situation, as well as her desire for acceptance. Despite their treatment, she wishes to belong with her peers. This is a common experience of young adulthood and it is made even more complicated by the bullying that Maddy endures.

“He turns over and shoves his face into his pillow and weeps, a horrible, hoarse, creaky-gate sound, and old-man sound. A man-utterly-alone sound.”

Arthur is devastated after he dreams about Nola and wakes up without her; his deep grief is shown in this passage. This honest and direct portrayal of grief is an example of how Berg highlights realistic, raw circumstances in her writing.

“A baby is so cute, how can you not love a baby? She won’t be sad around Anderson anymore. She won’t be weird. Everything will be solid, this will bring them together, they will be a family, she will have a family like other people have.”

Maddy is naïve in believing that Anderson will provide the family she longs for. However, she will have the solid and secure family life she describes, though it will be with people who can give and receive love. It will come in the form of nurturing and restorative relationships with Arthur and Lucille.

“She doesn’t want to say that that damn Sue might try to interfere. Again. But this time, he’ll push her away in a nice, heavenly way.”

This passage is important to Lucille’s characterization because it displays her difficult feelings about Frank’s late wife, who she imagines interfering when the three are in heaven. She is possessive over Frank. Lucille often has abrasive thoughts, dialogue, and actions, though she is well-intentioned.

“She puts her own hand on her shoulder.”

Maddy longs for someone to help her in times of need, often looking to objects or feelings to help her connect with her mother’s presence. After she learns that she’s pregnant and receives unsupportive responses, she feels her mom’s hand on her shoulder, which then evolves into her own hand comforting herself. This is a pivotal moment in the novel because she will now learn to rely on herself as she approaches motherhood.

“I take care of things, I make it through. I even whistle sometimes, but, Nola I miss you so much.”

Arthur has been transformed by grief, and he wants Nola to know that he both misses her and is able to make it through each day and do his best. Here, Berg portrays a realistic and relatable experience with loss. Moments like this also reinforce Arthur’s role as a sympathetic and likable character.

“He tells her that, when Nola first died, he thought he’d die himself, of the sorrow. He says he read that grief had a catabolic effect and he thought for sure it would take him right out, this immense and gnawing pain, that it would eat him alive from the inside out. But it didn’t.”

Arthur hopes to impart some wisdom about Coping with Grief and Finding New Beginnings as Lucille reels from Frank’s death. This reality demonstrates the resilience of humans like Arthur, Lucille, and Maddy to keep moving forward in the face of overwhelming sorrow.

“I had someone for less than a month and now he’s gone and I will never know love again!”

This statement is an example of The Experiences and Emotions of Aging because Lucille feels like given her age, her chance for love is now gone. Her age influences her emotional response to loss.

“‘Isn’t that something?’ he asks Nola. ‘We have a family.’”

When Maddy asks to move in, Arthur immediately remarks to Nola that they have a family; not just a friend, but something more binding and connected. He brings Nola into the present as a way of keeping her alive (we “have” a family), demonstrating The Transformative Power of Companionship and Chosen Families.

“It’s something to feed someone who is so in need of eating. It’s something to feed someone, period.”

Arthur regularly shares his lunch with Maddy and, in this passage, he is sharing a humble dinner of hot dogs and beans with Lucille as she is mourning Frank’s loss. She needs both literal and figurative nourishment and Arthur provides it, evidence of his “true love” and compassion for others.

“Isn’t life funny. It could drive you crazy if you thought about it too much. Turn this way and that happens. Turn that way and this happens.”

This statement encompasses a key feature of this novel, which is that life is unpredictable and can change drastically in a single moment. Maddy’s decision to keep her baby, Lucille’s decision to move in with Arthur and Maddy, and Arthur’s decision to leave his house to Maddy are all examples of how simple choices can cause profound change.

“I think he loved my mother an awful lot. I think that was a good love. But he lost her. Because of me. And when he lost her, something spoiled in him. And then he lost himself.”

Maddy shows maturity in trying to understand her father’s perspective and make sense of why he treated her so poorly, and this insight is an important part of her healing. Maddy figures this out without her father’s explanation of his feelings, which shows not only Maddy’s insight but her empathy for looking beyond his treatment of her and trying to uncover deeper meaning.

“In many respects, sorrow and disappointment are easier for her to handle than this outpouring of attention and affection that she has been offered by these two old people.”

Maddy’s life has been marked by grief and absence, so the loving care she receives from Arthur and Lucille is foreign but welcome. This passage shows her growth as a character because she does not remain walled-off as she had with her father, but now allows herself to accept attention and affection.

“I just want my mother.”

Maddy’s statement illustrates her experience with grief. As she prepares to become a mother herself, she only wants her own mom; other types of help are appreciated but fall short. This statement is significant because it relates to the theme of Coping with Grief and Finding New Beginnings.

“I’ll love you forever in darkness and sun, I’ll love you past when my whole sweet life is done.”

This statement is what Arthur repeats to Nola when he says goodbye to her grave one final time, and it is also a message he wrote in a birthday card in their twenties. It is significant because it represents exactly what Arthur has done—love Nola forever. This passage illustrates the permanence of their love and its ability to transcend death.

“I’ve had just about everything, haven’t I? I’ve really had just about everything you could ask for in this life.”

Arthur meets Maddy’s baby for the first time, and his reaction is one of gratitude and awe. Although Nola and Arthur couldn’t have children of their own, this passage exemplifies how families are created through love, not biology; Arthur still feels he has had a full and fulfilling life when he meets the baby who bears Nola’s name.

“Those stars will be so close together, it’ll look like they are one, but they’ll be two. Me, and then just to my right, Nola. Look up at us sometimes.”

Arthur is recalling Nola’s idea that when people die, they become stars, but he regrets not validating that statement when she said it. Here, he is able to redeem that experience by passing the idea onto Maddy in hopes that she will find comfort in believing that he is always with her. He is also instructing her in Coping with Grief and Finding New Beginnings because he’s giving her something accessible to hold onto when she inevitably grieves his death.