Amy Bloom: The God of Love Doesn't Exist

Amy Bloom’s new short story collection, Where the God of Love Hangs Out, is ironically titled. Ironic for the way it insinuates that there is such a thing as the God of Love, when the behavior of the characters in these short stories suggest otherwise. If there were a God of Love, Bloom suggests, then He lives in each of us, as both the angel trying to save us from poor decisions, and as the devil egging us on.

For each of the stories in Bloom’s collection features people who need to decide if they are going to pursue one relationship at the expense of another. Bloom’s characters are not driven by selfishness or passion—the usual culprits of poor decisions—but by various other psychological factors which she deftly explores. The title story is about a man and his daughter in law who find themselves questioning if they are married to the right spouse. Don’t worry, the two do not hook up, but do bare their souls to each other. We learn that they are each suffering from a case of feeling outclassed. Macy, the daughter-in-law, married into the family to gain a sense of middle-class security. Ron married his wife “for better or for worse,” but he doesn’t know when the better ended and the worse began. Now, he is thinking of trading Eleanor, she of Emily Post’s manners, for a bartender, Randeanne. Bloom sets up these doubts so that it makes sense for a young newlywed and a recent retiree to think about dumping their spouses.

The collection also includes two sets of related quartets. The opening quartet is about Clare and William, a couple “with one hundred and ten years between them,” who start having an affair when their respective spouses are in the same house, fast asleep. Clare and Williams don’t do this out of boredom, but out of an extreme comfort with each other. It’s as though they feel like they have already been married for decades. We, like they, think “hey—this isn’t so immoral, especially since the spouses seem not to care at all.” Again, Bloom hints at the psychological rationale behind this subversion. Both Clare and William feel kind of inadequate compared to their spouses. Charles and Isabel are always impeccably behaved, dressed, and fit. Clare, in contrast, is grouchy, while William is overweight. Their getting together can be seen as self-punishment for having “gotten the better end of the deal” married to their spouses for the past thirty years.

The most powerful story arc in the collection follows Lionel Jr. and Julia. Julia is 34 year old white woman married to a black jazz musician, Lionel Sr., who has just passed away. The day following the funeral, she has a carnal encounter with the 19 year old Lionel Jr, Lionel Sr.’s son from a previous marriage. The rest of the stories in this quartet trace the fall out from this one night. But while other authors may attribute all the mess in the son’s life to his stepmother’s actions, Bloom directs the real question as: how much of Lionel Jr.’s decisions through the rest of his life are really a reflection of the encounter, and how much is due to everything else? As one might expect, Lionel lives abroad and goes through women like others go through shirts. But is Julia really the cause, or just the justification? In the story’s final twist of events that permanently separate Julia and Lionel Jr. Bloom leaves us to make our own decisions.