Sylvia is another primary character. She is featured in “Apple Cake,” “Tanglewood,” “Days of Awe,” and “Poppy,” but she appears in the margins of the surrounding chapters as well. Sylvia is Lillian and Morris’s middle daughter, and her sisters are Jeanne and Helen. She is married to Lew, her third husband, and has one son, Richard, from another marriage. Sylvia also has three grandchildren: Sophie, Lily, and later Mordechai (Charlie).

Sylvia is an earnest person who is simultaneously desperate to keep the peace within her family and resistant to tailoring her behavior in order to do so. For example, after Sylvia offends Helen by making her apple cake recipe in Chapter 1, Sylvia does not apologize. Even though she continues to contact Helen throughout the years, she never admits that she has done anything wrong. Instead, she waits over two years for Helen to apologize to her. Sylvia is a more stereotypically sympathetic character than Helen, because she plays the part of the homemaker and caretaker, endearing herself to her grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. The scenes depicting her making cake for her relatives, taking them to Tanglewood concerts, and giving them her theater tickets collectively imply that she acts out her maternity in a more traditional manner than Helen does, as Helen is known to have a pricklier demeanor.

Sylvia also shows signs of change, although like Helen, she is largely resistant to altering her behavior. In “Poppy,” for example, Sylvia silently judges almost every choice that her son and his new wife make regarding the birth of their third child. However, instead of criticizing them openly, she keeps her opinions to herself. Much like Helen, she has learned that sharing her thoughts risks alienating her loved ones, especially when her opinions represent a more traditional way of life.

Jeanne is Lillian and Morris’s youngest child, and Helen and Sylvia’s youngest sister. She is directly featured only in “Apple Cake,” for in this first chapter of the book, she is in hospice care, anticipating her imminent death. Although she has been ailing for some time, no one—particularly her sisters and even Jeanne—can believe that Jeanne is on the verge of dying. Throughout the chapter, the narrator often inhabits Jeanne’s consciousness, revealing her determination to stay alive. She is largely mute and remains uninvolved in the family’s dynamics, but internally, she is reflecting on her life and her desires. Although she dies at the start of the novel, her lingering memory in the family structure instigates the tensions that arise between the other Rubinsteins. Helen and Sylvia become estranged immediately following Jeanne’s death, because Helen is offended that Sylvia usurped her place in the family. To complicate matters further, Sylvia believes that Helen did Jeanne a disservice by failing to honor her dying wishes.

Pam is one of Helen and Charles’s daughters. She features most prominently in “Wendybird” and “Deal Breaker.” In “Wendybird,” the narrator presents Pam as a selfish, distant character who puts little effort into maintaining healthy familial relationships. Her sister Wendy is particularly offended by Pam’s seeming inability to show gratitude for her constant kindness. However, after Wendy’s wife Jill confronts Pam for her carelessness, Pam begins to change. She starts reaching out to Wendy and thanking her for all of her kind gestures. Later, in “Deal Breaker,” Pam starts dating a man named John. She is hopeful about the relationship, as she has been single for many years, but she fears that if she tells her parents about John, who is not Jewish, their judgment will cast a shadow on the relationship. Instead, she discovers that when she confides in Helen and Charles about John, they offer her the support she needs when the relationship ends.

Wendy is also one of Helen and Charles’s daughters and is featured most prominently in “Wendybird.” Wendy is a kindhearted person who devotes all of her energy to caring for and loving her family. Although her wife Jill often urges her not to put so much effort into her family relationships, Wendy finds it impossible to pull away from them, no matter how much they hurt her. A giving and self-sacrificial person, Wendy shows her indifferent sister Pam a level of kindness that underscores The Myriad Forms of Love and Caregiving.

Sophie and Lily are Richard and Debra’s daughters and Sylvia and Lew’s granddaughters. Sophie is the elder of the two, but Lily features more prominently in the novel. The third-person narrator relates episodes from Lily’s storyline in “Ambrose,” “Days of Awe,” “Tanglewood,” and “Nutcracker”: sections that also include Sophie.

Sophie and Lily are both struggling with their parents’ recent divorce and trying to navigate their parents’ separation and their new divided home life. At the start of the novel, Lily is having trouble orienting to this new reality. She has anxiety and starts retreating into her private writing practice in order to cope with her emotions. Lily’s story is about a girl who turns into a swan, and this idea conveys Lily’s own desire to escape. Later on, she realizes that she might not be able to live in a different era, but she hopes that dance can offer her an outlet for her emotions.

Meanwhile, Sophie is a moodier character who often teases Lily, and the two sisters are almost constantly bickering. However, their relationship begins to change in “Days of Awe” when Lily begs Sophie never to grow estranged from her, the way that Helen has from Sylvia. The two sisters make a pact, and in “Nutcracker,” they are more deeply connected through their shared love of dance.

In addition to leading their own unique lives, Sophie and Lily are also used as narrative devices to complicate Richard and Debra’s relationship. While Debra feels that she is always trying to protect the girls, Richard is trying to balance his personal life with the responsibilities of childcare. The girls are therefore often a source of tension between the former spouses.

Phoebe features primarily in “F.A.Q.s,” “Redemption Song,” and “Tanglewood.” She is Dan and Melanie’s only daughter. When Phoebe’s grandmother Jeanne died, Jeanne left Phoebe her prized violin—the ultimate inheritance. Like Jeanne was, Phoebe is passionate about music and is a talented musician. When she rediscovers the instrument in her closet, she revives her love for music and finds a new direction in life. She drops out of college in her last term and goes on the road with her new boyfriend Wyatt, who is also a musician. Dan and Melanie love Phoebe but do not agree with her decision. Helen is also skeptical of her grandniece’s lifestyle, yet she is eager to be relevant to her life. For this reason, she repairs Jeanne’s old violin on Phoebe’s behalf. Phoebe is a more peripheral character, but her life choices illustrate The Tension Between Personal Autonomy and Familial Expectations.

Steve is Dan’s brother; the two are Jeanne’s sons. Steve is married to Andrea, with whom he has two sons, Zach and Nate. Steve appears in “A Challenge You Have Overcome” and “$.” Just when both of Steve’s children are about to be leaving home to attend school, Steve loses his job and undergoes a mid-life crisis. He has been in the publishing business for years and is reluctant to give up his youthful hopes of becoming a poet. He procrastinates in applying for a teaching job because he dislikes children and still believes that he might have a career as a writer. He ultimately ends up ghostwriting for his friend Jeff’s company, and this job both underscores his perceived failings and activates his old creative impulses.

Dan is Jeanne’s son and Steve’s brother, and Melanie is his wife. Phoebe is their daughter. The couple appears in “F.A.Q.s” and “Redemption Song.” In the former chapter, Dan and Melanie are beside themselves when Phoebe returns home from college for winter break. Initially excited to have her back, the couple starts to worry when Phoebe does nothing but lie in bed and sleep all day. Dan and Melanie have many private conversations and argue about how to get Phoebe to reengage with the world. Ultimately, they have no control over Phoebe’s decisions. They believe they are caring for her, but Phoebe feels as if she is caring for them. Later, in “Redemption Song,” Dan and Melanie hosts their extended family for Passover, and more tensions ensue. This chapter predominantly focuses on Dan’s negative regard for the holiday, given his and Steve’s childhood with their father, who was a Holocaust survivor.