This Is a Love Story

Jane is another of the novel’s protagonists. The chapters labeled with her first name are written from the third-person perspective and are limited to her point of view. In these chapters, Jane isn’t the narrator, but the narrator is situated close to Jane and has insight into her thoughts, memories, and internal world. Jane is also central to Abe’s and Max’s chapters: In Abe’s chapters, Jane works with him to remember their life as she anticipates her death; in Max’s chapters, Jane most often appears in Max’s memories or passing thoughts. Although the chapters from Jane’s point of view are limited, through her husband’s and son’s accounts, Soffer continues to center her in the narrative.

Art is an essential facet of Jane’s identity. She draws, paints, and makes sculptures and devotes all her energy to her creative process when she’s young. She encourages Abe to similarly prioritize his writing because she wants to share her life with another like-minded artist. Over time, her influence on Abe proves transformative for him; her influence in Abe’s life and in the narrative highlights the role of art in shaping identity.

Much of Jane’s identity as an artist is inspired by her late mother; Jane states that she “learned everything from [her] mother in such a short time” (21). Jane’s mother passed away from cervical cancer when Jane was a little girl, and ever since, Jane has been making work to honor her mother, who appears in memories throughout Jane’s sections, underscoring her significance to how Jane perceives herself and the world around her.

Jane’s perception of herself changes when she has Max, causing her to question herself as a woman, an artist, and a mother. She decides that she wants children after she gets pregnant unexpectedly and then loses the pregnancy. When she gets pregnant a second time, she begins to settle into the idea of having a child, but both pregnancy and childbirth dampen her artistic impulses. She experiences a protracted bout of postpartum depression that pulls her further away from her creative endeavors. These experiences confuse Jane’s identity because art has always grounded her in reality and in herself. While she appreciates Abe’s and Bubbe’s help with Max during this period, Jane struggles to articulate her despair and confusion. Her loneliness grows acute over time and is only augmented by Abe’s affair and her diagnosis with cervical cancer. Jane isn’t an effusive character, so she doesn’t always articulate her emotions with her husband or even her best friend, Bea. However, she and Abe do find a way back to each other when she’s sick, and their changing relationship reflects the deep, underlying constancy of their love, highlighting The Evolution of Love and Relationships.

Jane’s arc implies that she regrets how much time she spent on her art and wishes that she’d devoted more of herself to her family. Her reflections in the final chapter of the novel support this idea, as Jane realizes that her art can’t ultimately love her the way her family does. With Jane’s character, Soffer implies that while art might offer the artist—particularly the woman artist—a sense of purpose, it cannot fulfill her in the same way that being part of a loving family can.

Max is Jane and Abe’s son and another of the novel’s primary characters. Like Jane’s chapters, Max’s chapters are written from the third-person limited point of view and provide insight into his internal world. These sections act as a counterweight to Abe’s and Jane’s sections, as they represent Max as an adult man with his own thoughts, feelings, and experiences, rather than as the child of Abe and Jane. However, he also offers a different perspective on Jane and Abe from outside their marriage.

Much of Max’s internal unrest throughout the novel is tied to his relationships with each of his parents. In particular, Max has a fraught relationship with Jane, which the novel conveys through his constant thoughts of her. When Max was a child, Jane was living with postpartum depression and was unable to care for him in a traditional manner. He felt this distance throughout his childhood and attached himself to his grandmother Bubbe and father, Abe—both of whom he believes played more significant caretaking roles in his life than Jane. Over the course of his upbringing, Jane tried to spend more time with Max, but distance remained between them. Max continues to feel this distance as a young man in the narrative present, but at the same time, Jane features prominently in his life, even in her absence. Max’s account frequently alludes to Jane—repeated narrative allusions that reveal his unacknowledged longing to be close to her and simultaneous fear of acknowledging her continued effect on him.

Many of Max’s decisions are driven by his unresolved relationship with Jane. He intentionally does not become an artist, choosing instead to deal and sell art, and “promise[s] himself he’[ll] never get married” (117). He convinces himself that by avoiding his mother’s patterns, he can avoid becoming her. On a more personal level, the way that Max treats women is reflective of his unresolved internal unrest over his relationship, or lack thereof, with Jane. Both before and after his relationship with Jaclyn, Max sleeps “with a lot of women” (118). He doesn’t believe in settling down and moves from one sexual relationship to the next with little consideration or reflection. The way that his sex life is represented on the page casts sex as a pastime for Max—lists of women he’s been with are presented in single sentences or brief paragraphs, reflecting the dismissive quality of Max’s regard for women. In Chapter 20, Max sleeps with his yoga instructor—“When he’s on top, she says no and he says yes and she says, Jesus”—a scene that exhibits Max committing an act of sexual violence (147). While the narrator doesn’t explicitly condone Max’s behavior, neither the narrator nor Max reflects on this scene again, implying that his actions don’t have repercussions.

Max’s lack of consideration for others and absorption in his own experience is further evidenced in his relationship with Jaclyn. Although Max has deep feelings for Jaclyn, he can’t fully commit to her and never articulates his love for her. He also abandons her out of fear when she needs him. His selfishness in this relationship echoes his distance from his parents: Max knows that his mother is dying from cervical cancer and that his father wants him to visit, but Max often ignores them. He does have intermittent calls with Abe and Jane and visits Orient a few times, but these points of connection are more obligatory than voluntary. In these ways, Max’s interpersonal relationships reveal the truth of who he is. Max is still trying to understand what love means to him, and his lack of regard for others proves that he struggles to establish and maintain healthy intimacy with others.