Love and Intimacy

The novel explores the multivalent nature of love by centralizing the primary characters’ intimate relationships one with another. Isabel and Dan’s, Chess and Garth’s, Garth and Dan’s, Isabel and Robbie’s, and Robbie and Dan’s relationships lie at the heart of the narrative’s conflicts, tensions, and explorations. Although these five characters all share familial ties, all of their connections are unique. The way that Isabel and Robbie relate to one another, for example, does not mirror the way that Robbie and Dan relate to one another. In “April 5, 2019, Morning,” the narrator says that Isabel and Robbie “keep no secrets” (35). Their relationship is founded not only upon their sibling dynamic, but upon honesty and openness. This is why Robbie remarks with surprise that he “used to think married people talked about everything” (35). Isabel and Dan have been married for years...