The Husbands

“You can’t stay married to someone forever just because they climb out of your attic one afternoon. He rescued her from Kieran and she’s grateful for that, but she’d known him for four days, not even very interesting days […] She doesn’t want to take him to the wedding, Elena and Rob declaring their eternal love, Amos and whoever the hell Lily is judging his messy eating. And thanks to the attic, she doesn’t have to: she can send him away without even having an awkward conversation about it […] And now that she knows she’s changing everything, that there are no consequences to her actions, she calls Elena just before Jason gets home and has another go at telling her what’s going on.”

This is a significant moment, as Lauren realizes that she has the power to control her destiny to a degree by ridding herself of an undesirable husband. Her objection to this particular husband is rooted in the disapproval she is certain other people in her life will show. Though she insists this rejection has no consequences, this mindset will be called into question later in the novel.

“The rules of this situation are becoming clearer to her. All of her husbands are men that some version of herself might have chosen to marry, and who might have chosen to marry her. None of them are going to be radically dissimilar from the husbands who have already visited.”

Lauren decides that the husbands are not arbitrary: At some moment in each new life’s unremembered past, she has chosen to marry this man. In this way, she is convinced that there must be some aspect of the men that initially attracted them to her. However, she frequently finds herself at a loss for what that factor or characteristic might beowe.

“This is not acceptable. Toby and Maryam are her perfect match, her proof that two imperfect people can make something work, something straightforward and good […] Just two people who are happy with each other, two people who are careful and fond, Maryam’s distraction against Toby’s calm and low-key attentiveness.”

Lauren is angered when, during one of her husband switches, Toby and Maryam have an open marriage. Lauren has idolized the couple as the model of the perfect marriage and what she seeks to emulate in her own. That they agree to engage in sex with people outside of the marriage suggests to Lauren that their marriage is in some way flawed.