The Robber Bride

An academic and scholar, Tony sees the world dispassionately. As a student of war, she sees death and suffering as numbers on a spreadsheet or pieces on a chess board. She has few social skills as a young woman, and so she devotes her energies to developing her intellect. Sexual intimacy is a frightening step into maturity that she never seems ready to make, not even with West, a friend and classmate she pines over while spending hours with his girlfriend, Zenia. Tony’s vulnerability is her secret desire to expand her horizons beyond the world of books and history—a desire that Zenia reads accurately and exploits, exposing her to the hipster scene of coffee shops, late night parties, and bohemian intelligentsia. Tony, taken in by Zenia’s attention, falls for the ruse, lending her money without question. Like Charis and Roz, Tony is a product of her childhood experiences, her mother’s emotional distance, and her father’s isolation. Their marriage is shaky at best, which is perhaps why Tony prefers books to people. She cannot imagine a successful relationship, and so she retreats into her intellectual safe space rather than explore social and sexual connections.

Whatever Tony’s flaws, she is a caretaker, much like her mother.