This Is a Love Story

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, illness, mental illness, and pregnancy loss.

One of This Is a Love Story’s primary themes is the role that artistic creation plays in the individual’s evolving sense of self. The novel explores this theme within the context of Abe’s, Jane’s, and Alice’s storylines. Each of these characters identifies as an artist—be it through writing, painting, or sculpting—but they all have distinct relationships with their creative practices. Abe “never imagined writing full time, it was a cherished hobby, a tic even” (12), but when he and Jane fell in love, Jane’s passion for art inspired his newfound devotion to his craft. Over time, Abe began to see his authorial work as his meaning and purpose in life. In writing fiction, he was able to process the world and understand himself. In contrast, Jane’s relationship with her art—drawing, painting, and sculpting—has always been simple, “[a] one-to-one” (21). Art is inextricable from her identity because in creating, she is reifying her experience of the world. Jane has a keen sense of observation and consistently puts her art before her other relationships and desires.