Paul Sullivan
A young novelist whose cultivated suffering offers Jim another unhealthy model of love.
Love, artistic seriousness, and the suffering he has learned to associate with both.
The book
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freePaul is a twenty-eight-year-old novelist whom Jim meets after Ronald.
His seriousness appeals to Jim, but Paul treats emotional pain as proof of depth and useful literary material.
Their relationship is intellectually richer than Jim’s earlier affairs and still cannot displace Bob.
How the book draws them
- LiteraryHe interprets experience through the habits of a novelist.
- CynicalHe expects betrayal before it occurs.
- Self-dramatizingHe can turn pain into a performance of seriousness.
- SophisticatedHe introduces Jim to a more intellectual gay identity.
- ProvocativeHis arrangements with Maria create the possibility of betrayal.
- LonelyHe reconnects with Jim later through familiarity rather than fulfilled love.
The Yucatán trip clarifies Jim’s sexuality but exposes Paul’s destructive expectations.
They later reconnect without becoming the lasting relationship either might need.
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