Who is Jack Flanders from The Easter Parade: A Novel and what is their importance?

Jack Flanders is a divorced man with several children. Emily meets him when he takes a job as an editor on the same food magazine where she works. As they begin to date, Emily learns that Jack is a poet. In fact, Jack is invited to teach at the State University of Iowa. Emily goes with him and immediately finds herself forced to provide emotional support for Jack's quickly growing sense of inadequacy in relation to his writing. In the end it is this overwhelming need on Jack's part that causes Emily to walk away from him.