Love: A Novel

Content Warning: This section discusses racism, sexual assault, child abuse, child marriage, and violence.

As the title suggests, different kinds of love are represented throughout the text, ranging from romantic and sexual to friendship and the familial. The novel questions many common societal ideas about love, including the idea that romantic and marital love is the most important love of all. The majority of the romantic and sexual relationships in the novel are traumatic and dysfunctional, while familial love and friendship are shown to be often-neglected but important ways of relating to others.

L. remarks, “[i]f your name is the subject of First Corinthians, chapter 13, it’s natural to make it your business” (198), and she provides many of the novel’s overt thoughts on the topic of love. First Corinthians 13 is a chapter in the Biblical New Testament often known as the “love chapter” and it lists the characteristics of love, emphasizing patience, kindness, and self-sacrifice. This kind of love is notably lacking in many of the sexual or romantic relationships in the novel. Bill Cosey cheats on both of his wives with Celestial, and though he claims to love her, he never acknowledges her in society and always keeps her in the shadows of his life.