Response to "The Love of My Life"

The first three to four pages of the story consist entirely of dewy-eyed romance and sighing lovers, but Boyle still creates a sense of dread. China and Jeremy are incredibly happy, but Boyle drops hints that their relationship is not as special as they might think, or at the very least it will end problematically. When they are watching the horror movie, Jeremy notes that “Teens have sex…and they pay for it in body parts,” which proves to be remarkably prescient. And all of the dialogue between China and Jeremy is not particularly friendly; when they are leaving for their camping trip, China asks “So [your mom has] got your car? She’s going to sell real estate in your car?” Boyle places awkward moments in what would otherwise be a boring stretch of perfect story.

Boyle uses an unusual point of view; while the point of view is third person limited, it switches back and forth  between Jeremy and China. Events important to the story, such as China’s decision to testify against Jeremy or his reaction, do not necessarily receive narration from both characters. For long stretches of story, the reader only knows as much as the narrator, which compels a certain amount of sympathy. This is doubly effective since the reader may not want to be particularly sympathetic with Jeremy or China.

While the main characters change dramatically over the course of the story, the elements of their personality that stay the same are just as telling. In “The Love of My Life,” events compel characters to deal with traits they already have, rather than just events altering them. Both Jeremy and China lack introspection. In the beginning, they don’t seem to notice that they don’t like each other very much, even in the end. Neither acknowledge in any way that what they did was wrong. “The Love of My Life” is about Jeremy and China accruing consequences for their failings.