When Life Gives You Lululemons

Miriam Kagan is another of the novel’s primary characters. In the narrative present, she lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, with her husband Paul and their three children, Benjamin, Matthew, and Maisie. Miriam used to work in law in New York City but gave up her high-powered career and lifestyle for a quieter, slower life in the suburbs. On the one hand, Miriam is thrilled that her children have more space to grow up and is glad for more time at home with the family. On the other hand, “there [are] days when she miss[es] [her old life] like an amputated limb” (215).

Miriam is a kind-hearted, good-natured person who strives to be the best she can be for her friends and family. Sometimes Emily is unsure how she is “friends with someone so perfect” (98). On the outside, Miriam’s life looks idyllic. She is married to a handsome man who loves her, raising three beautiful children, and living in “the perfect house in the perfect suburb” (98). However, Miriam is good at hiding her discontent. She is afraid to admit—even to herself—that she is unhappy and isolated in her new suburban life. She often feels insecure about how she looks and how she spends her time. When she is alone, she often overeats her children’s junk food snacks or berates herself for gaining weight. Meanwhile, she despairs that Paul is having an affair with a younger, fitter woman because he hasn’t shown interest in having sex with her in months. Miriam tries to conceal these self-doubts and fears from her friends because she is desperate to maintain the facade of the ideal life and family.

Miriam’s friendships with Emily and Karolina teach her the Transformative Power of Female Friendship and offer her the safety to show vulnerability. She gradually starts to open up to her friends about her insecurities, and she also confronts Paul for what she believes is his deception and betrayal. What Miriam learns is that although time, circumstances, and her age have changed her life, she still has love and acceptance from the people important to her. Paul is devoted to her and spends weeks securing the ideal surprise office for her. Emily and Karolina stay by her side and encourage her through her ups and downs. She is a dynamic character because, like Emily, her perspective on herself and her commitment to her life shifts over the course of the novel.

Karolina Hartwell is another of the novel’s primary characters. She is the third member of Emily and Miriam’s friend group. Like Emily and Miriam, she is in her mid-thirties and struggling to reconcile with how age changes ideals and outlook. She has been married to a senator named Graham Hartwell for 10 years, with whom she has been raising her stepson Harry. A former model, Karolina changed her life to be with Graham and Harry. Karolina’s entire life changes when she is unjustly arrested for drinking while driving with children in the car, the incident that catalyzes her character arc. She is shocked by the incident because she has never had an alcohol addiction and would never do anything to endanger Harry. She is left to deal with the fallout from this situation in the weeks and months following.

Karolina is a gentle, loving, and sincere character. The accusations against her cause her to question her self-worth because she has never been attacked in this manner before. She is shocked by the public’s vitriol and her husband’s failure to defend her. In fact, Graham publicly slanders her name, only worsening the scandal and further marring her reputation. Immobilized, Karolina feels as if she cannot “get out of bed” and quickly realizes “this was depression. She’d had a bout with it during her endless struggle to conceive, but this felt ten times worse” (77).

Karolina does not get out of this slump until Miriam and Emily come to her rescue. These new friendships deliver her from her social alienation and personal despair. They remind Karolina of her strength, beauty, power, and independence, and urge her to take control of her life. Karolina ultimately empowers herself by channeling her hurt into a fight for Harry. She is furious with Graham for betraying her—orchestrating her DUI and lying to her about his vasectomy—but she is even more passionate about her relationship with Harry. With the help of her friends, she exposes Graham’s indiscretions to the public and wins back custody of her stepson, and her fierce protection of her stepson illustrates her new understanding of her power, completing her character arc and demonstrating the dynamic nature of her character.

Graham Hartwell is a secondary character. He is a United States senator, Karolina’s husband, and Harry’s father. After he sabotages Karolina and slanders her in the press, Karolina is left wondering if Graham was ever sincere. Graham has hurt her, but Karolina is convinced that the “wedding and the honeymoon had been real, as had many of the years they’d shared afterward” (89). She remembers Graham buying “her beautiful expensive jewelry for her birthdays” and “store-bought Hallmark cards on which he’d scrawled heartfelt words about how much he loved her” (90). Karolina is desperate to believe the sincerity of these gestures because she is afraid of recognizing Graham’s inauthenticity and thus the falsity of their life together.

Graham functions as an antagonist throughout the novel. Karolina, Emily, and Miriam discover that Graham has lied to Karolina throughout their marriage and has actively worked to destroy her. He planted the champagne bottles in the back of her car and worked with the police to have her arrested for drunk driving on New Year’s Eve. They also later learn that Graham had a secret vasectomy five years into his and Karolina’s marriage, allowing Karolina to believe that she was the reason for their fertility “issues.” He kept these secrets from Karolina so he could live the life he wanted without compromise. He orchestrated her DUI so that he had a valid reason to divorce her and start seeing the former president’s daughter Regan Whitney, illustrating his unfeeling and self-centered nature.

By the end of the novel, Graham must face justice when Regan exposes his manslaughter coverup from high school to the press. Karolina continues to co-parent Harry with him, but she officially ends their relationship for good and is able to reconcile with what happened between them. Graham eventually begs to get back together, highlighting his static nature as a character through his inability to accept responsibility or feel remorse.