Gail

Gail is the middle-aged protagonist and narrator of the novel. One primary characteristic that defines Gail is that she bases her opinion of herself off of other people and how she believes she interacts with them. This is evident at the beginning of the novel when her boss tells her that she has poor people skills. Gail never considered this to be true, but now that Marilee mentions it, Gail believes it may be the case. When she speaks of it to her ex-husband, Max, he tells her that she is good at reaching students and that she should consider going back to classroom teaching. Because she trusts others’ opinions about herself, she slowly begins to consider this career move. This reliance upon other people’s opinions to form her own opinion of herself has drastic consequences when she cheats on her husband. Once Max finds out about...