This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer

Remembering a Long Marriage at the End

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This Is a Love Story is the story of Abe and Jane. It is mostly told by Abe in flashback as he helps Jane look back on their life together while her death from a third go-round with cancer is looming. There are other voices we hear from as well:

• Their son, Max
• The woman Abe almost had an affair with, Alice
• Jane herself
• And oddly, Central Park in New York City is a “character” in this book

Abe and Jane are both very successful in their careers. Abe is a writer, and Jane an artist. I did not feel that their love was presented as the-love-of-all-time. Abe was devoted to Jane. And Jane was devoted to her work.

When Max was born, Jane had severe postpartum depression, but it was not a diagnosable illness at that time and so the family just suffered. Abe’s mother helped out a lot and was a very loving presence in the book. I wish the author had written some chapters from her point of view, but she did not. Instead we just see Jane NOT bonding with Max and Abe loving Max but not as much as he might have as he seems to choose Jane over Max.

In Abe’s chapters and in Jane’s we learn that Jane’s mother died when she was twelve. We also see that she has never recovered from the loss. Thus, her difficulties with love relationships is understandable, but that still puts Max in a terrible position as her son. It is very telling that from the time he could speak, Max called his mother Jane.

In Max’s chapters we learn that in adulthood he is a very successful and wealthy art dealer and that he has promised himself he would never get married. The only person he has ever truly loved is his grandmother, Bubbe. Of his family of origin, the author tells us: “They were never a family per se. They were a triangle broken into lines. The one from his mother especially dashed. The one to his father intact, but faint.”

Clearly this not-quite-a-family had a difficult home life. Did this make Abe susceptible to the advances of Alice, a student in one of Abe’s writing classes? I guess so. Alice’s chapters are particularly cringe-worthy, and Abe succumbs…somewhat. When he finally extricates himself from Alice, he feels the need to confess to Jane. This almost-affair could have destroyed their marriage except that the cancer first occurred at this point, and it worked to bond them.

The Central Park chapters were the most unique. The first one opens this way, “Some people come to the Park because they want to fall in love for the first time, the twelfth time, the final time. Some have been used, widowed, or bored stiff. They have spent the past decade in deep introspection, falling in love with themselves – and no one else – first. Some come for a short respite – from a spouse who will not help themselves or from no one home (she even took the dog; you can’t imagine the sudden quiet). The Park is a beating heart, and adagio, a dreamy parenthesis.”

While the main characters make appearances in the park, they are among the many as suggested in the above passage. In this way, the park serves as the great equalizer.

There are as many love stories as there are people strolling through the park. To the ones living a particular love story, it can be quite dramatic! But choose any other person and their story would be dramatic too. Some other “Jane” might have had infertility instead of postpartum issues. Another may have lost a sibling in childhood, not her mother. Still another Jane may be a very creative – but starving – artist. Or maybe she had an affair – full-fledged or otherwise – herself.

The stories are endless. And compelling. And when we know the back stories, we can be sympathetic to all the heartache involved. Up to and including the love stories that are part of our own lives.

That’s my takeaway from Jessica Soffer’s book.

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