Lovestruck duo prove elusive despite vivid, expressive prose

Just in time for summer, Bobby Palmer’s latest novel Main Characters is the perfect beach (or lake) read, a funny and tender love story that’s told from everyone’s point of view but those of the main characters.

Palmer is a critically acclaimed U.K. author (Isaac and the Egg, Small Hours) and journalist whose work has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Men’s Health and Cosmopolitan. Main Characters is his U.S. debut.

Palmer’s prose is expressive and detailed, painting a vivid picture of even the most mundane activities: “Rabbit ragu and wrist-thick Florentine steaks and gnocchi with so much cheese it made her see God.” He makes it easy to imagine the characters, scenes and surroundings.

The novel begins the way most love stories do, with classically flawed characters Clara and Seb noticing a spark between them at several chance meetings.

Both dissatisfied with the trajectory of their current lives, elfin, avant-garde Clara is unsettled and determined to make it in the world of film while tall, dark and broody Seb pays his bills through acting and modelling gigs even though he’d rather be playing music.

“They don’t seem an obvious match, these two. Seb seems the type to hold back. Clara more inclined to put everything on the table,” Palmer writes.

Their love story is almost over before it begins when, after an electric first date, Clara disappears and it’s revealed that she’s already in a relationship with Jacob, another aspiring actor.

The universe is determined to bring the pair together when almost a year after Clara ends her toxic relationship with Jacob, she and Seb cross paths again at an audition for a production Clara is working on. “They’re frozen in the moment, kissing as if it was always supposed to happen like this,” Palmer writes.

The story resumes with Clara and Seb finally committed to each other and succumbing to the undeniable attraction that exists between them. They meet each other’s families, buy a flat together and agree to expand their family.

Trying for a baby is more challenging than anticipated, and becomes a point of contention. Clara remains more focused on her flourishing career than procreation, while Seb confesses, “If I don’t have this, then I don’t have anything.”

“You have me,” she says. “Why can’t that be enough?”

Determined to instil confidence in a struggling Seb, Clara casts him alongside her now-famous actor ex-boyfriend Jacob in her eagerly anticipated new film. Emotions run high, egos collide and after a tumultuous affair that permanently fractures Seb and Clara’s relationship, they part ways, with Seb escaping to Italy and Clara embarking on an entirely new journey — as a single mother.

Fate, chance and circumstances continue to bring Clara and Seb together throughout the novel, leaving the reader unsure after many near misses if they will ever reunite for good.

While the perspective from which Main Characters is told is interesting, the added details and interiority of other characters make it difficult to connect and resonate with Clara and Seb. It proves challenging to develop affinity or empathy towards them without understanding more about what they were thinking.

Jenna Boholij is a Winnipeg writer with an affinity for nature and all things Icelandic. Her debut novel Lucid was published in 2024 by Dreamsphere Books — you can find her at @jbird_photos.