My Lovely Wife

How does the decision not to give the narrator a name affect the reader’s sense of who he is? How does it contribute to the theme of The Complexity of Identity?

What truths does the novel reveal about the consequences of infidelity on families and communities? Of course, most spouses do not resort to serial murder, as Millicent does. But setting aside the murders, how does the novel illustrate the way marital betrayal can affect those outside the marriage?

Hair and eyes appear often in My Lovely Wife, especially the hair and eyes of women. What do these features represent? What do they symbolize to the narrator and/or the novel as a whole?

Exactly what kinds of parenting challenges does the narrator’s relationship with Rory and Jenna illustrate? How does the context of paranoia and murder help illustrate the universal struggles of parenting?

How do other people around the narrator influence him, and how does this complicate The Complexity of Identity?

How does the narrator’s memory of his own parents inform how he parents his own children? What does this reveal about the challenges of intergenerational trauma and recovery?

How does the tennis racket transform as a symbol over the course of the novel? What does it mean at the beginning versus at the end?

Using examples from the novel to support your answer, explain how the author uses repetition to develop the novel’s theme(s).