Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of pregnancy loss and a nonconsensual sexual encounter.

“It would be so much easier if she wasn’t Jen. But she is, and where there was once the purest kind of love, there is now a snake pit of fury and resentment and a new dark and twisted love that hurts more than all the rest of it put together.”

Along with The Layers of Grief and Bereavement, the novel investigates love, the complicated layers of that emotion, and how it can change due to loss or betrayal. The metaphor of the snake pit is characteristic of Jonathan Tropper’s sharp, precise imagery that suggests how Judd’s love for his wife is now a cause of pain, one of Judd’s major conflicts throughout the novel.

“In the days that followed, I would review the last year or so of our marriage like the security tapes after a robbery, wondering how the hell I could have been so damn oblivious, how it took actually walking in on them to finally get the picture.”

Characteristic of Judd’s voice, this passage displays his hurt and fury over the discovery that his wife was having an affair. The analogy of a robbery suggests how he feels Wade has robbed him of Jen’s affection. Judd is also furious with himself for not realizing something was wrong, and this anger proves a habitual defense mechanism for his character.

“At some point you lose sight of your actual parents; you just see a basketful of history and unresolved issues.”

As he returns to his childhood home and confronts his relationships with his family members, Judd gains a new perspective on his parents and their relationships with him as well as with each other. Part of his character arc will involve coming to recognize his parents as people with rich lives and histories, and not just sources of disappointment and resentment for him.