All Your Perfects

“My mother loves to compare me to Evelyn Bradbury. Her family is one of the few in Greenwich who is more prominent than my stepfather’s. So of course my mother uses Evelyn Bradbury as an example of high-class perfection at every opportunity. I don’t care about Evelyn Bradbury. I have half a mind to text my mother right now and simply say, The wedding is off and I don’t give a fuck about Evelyn Bradbury.”

It’s telling that Quinn immediately thinks about her mother’s fixation on reputation upon discovering her fiancé Ethan is cheating, and that their engagement is over. Quinn also repeatedly notes that her mother likes Ethan more than she does; this demonstrates that her relationship with Ethan was driven by convenience and social expectations, not love. However, this doesn’t make Ethan’s cheating any less traumatic.

“In our defense, it’s hard to admit that a marriage might be over when the love is still there. People are led to believe that a marriage ends only when the love has been lost. When anger replaces happiness. When contempt replaces bliss. But Graham and I aren’t angry at each other. We’re just not the same people we used to be.”

This early description of Quinn and Graham’s marriage establishes its current state. Quinn admits that they still love each other, but that their marriage is “dwindling” and “weakened.” She sees herself as “facing the opposite direction” from Graham, hinting at the physical and emotional distance between them.

“When Graham bought it, he said the jeweler told him the wedding ring is a symbol for eternal love. An endless loop. The beginning becomes the middle and there’s never supposed to be an end. But nowhere in that jeweler’s explanation did he say the ring symbolizes eternal happiness. Just eternal love. The problem is, love and happiness are not concordant. One can exist without the other.”

Quinn reflects on how the love in her marriage is still present, despite her absence of happiness. Her wedding ring—a symbol of marriage with no end—proves true of her relationship; this symbol, in combination with the theme of Love and the Strength of Commitment Through Difficult Times, emphasizes the work that goes into a successful marriage. This quote also demonstrates the severity of Quinn and Graham’s marital problems: Both partners are unhappy and simply pretending not to notice.