Love is a major theme in the book. This memoir is filled with love from beginning to end. Calvin Trillin loved his wife, Alice, and from Trillin's description of Alice, the reader can feel assured that the feeling was mutual. Theirs marriage did not deteriorate over the years. On the contrary, it appears from the words which Trillin uses to discuss Alice that their marriage only grew stronger over the years. They worked together, played together and raised two daughters together.