Funny You Should Ask

Sussman uses the motif of home throughout the novel to represent the broader concept of fitting in one’s own skin. Gabe is renting a house in Laurel Canyon when Chani first meets him, a temporary arrangement that indicates that his true self isn’t fully reflected in this place. He also tours an eight-bedroom Hollywood mansion, as though testing to see whether such a place better reflects who he wants to be, and his hopes of success, but when Chani doesn’t like the place, Gabe immediately stops pursuing it, suggesting that the place he feels most himself is with her. Instead, he buys the Laurel Canyon house—the place where he first met Chani—demonstrating, even subconsciously, that the thing that signals home to him is her.

Gabe’s comfort in his apartment above his mother’s bookstore in Montana highlights his attachment to his family and his hometown, and the way in which his roots are still a part of who he is. Chani enjoys his Montana space and feels comfortable there, a sign that she and Gabe fit together. Though Los Angeles is her hometown, Chani feels a sense in the present-day storyline that it no longer fits her. Ten years prior, she was already growing restless in LA and has not made a real home there since her divorce. In contrast, her sense of comfort and ease in Gabe’s Montana apartment symbolizes that the place she feels a sense of home in a relationship with him as their true selves, apart from LA or New York City and the expectations of his fame or the expectations of their respective careers.

The city of Los Angeles represents not just a place but a particular culture, different from the other settings of New York City and Montana. To Jeremy, L.A. represents a culture obsessed with superficial image and fame; he dismisses it in comparison to New York City, which he views as a hub of literature and art in the US, as well as a financial powerhouse.

Chani defends the culture of Los Angeles, telling Gabe that not only is there a rich diversity of population, food, and neighborhoods with their own unique identities, but also a sea of museums, gardens, and parks in addition to architecture, art, and music. She also appreciates the topography of the city, especially the mountains. Montana, with its spacious, rural landscape, and its dramatic scenery, represents Gabe’s background and upbringing, the place that feels most familiar and real to him. While Chani was born in Los Angeles, her sense of discomfort with it after moving back shows that she has matured past her childhood and young adulthood. She doesn’t belong in New York City with Jeremy, but she does feel she could belong with Gabe, signaled by her comfort with Montana.