The New Couple in 5B

Chad Lowan is one of the primary antagonists of The New Couple in 5B. He is an actor and the husband of Chad Lowan. He is described as “golden, with a thick main of straw-colored curls” and “faceted hazel eyes” (27). He has “movie star” good looks, and is “broad in the shoulders, fit and lean through the body” (27). Chad “earned his MFA from Columbia University” and is “always hustling from this thing to that, ambitious” to catch his big break (33). Whereas Rosie is an introvert, Chad is “an extrovert, drawing on the attention of others as a kind of rocket fuel” (81). Chad is defined by the stark contrast between his physical appearance and the dark secrets he has been hiding from his wife Rosie. Chad’s dark side is foreshadowed in the prologue, when the anonymous narrator, later revealed to be Chad, admits that he has “made too many dark choices” to remain married to Rosie (9). He feels as if he has a “dark entity hovering, a specter […] the destroyer” inside him (10). Chad’s dark past remains a secret until the novel’s final chapters. As soon as Rosie learns about his crimes, she is able to see the “darkness” inside him.

Ella Aldridge is one of the primary antagonists of The New Couple in 5B. Along with her husband Charles, she lives next door to the Lowans in the Windermere Apartments. She is described as “stylish,” “flawless,” and “chic” with “gray hair” and “worried eyes.” Ella is an heiress who “seems to live on another planet of wealth and accomplishment” than the rest of the Windermere residents (170). Throughout the novel, Ella’s antagonistic acts stem from her love for and devotion to her family, and the tension between this love and her aggression is central to her character. In 1963, Ella and her husband Charles are left “nearly catatonic with grief” after the death of their son Miles (273). Ella and Charles “look like ghosts in their grief” (291), and Ella responds by attempting to ruin the life of her neighbor Willa, who she believes is responsible for Miles’s death. In the novel’s present, Ella takes violent action to attempt to take back apartment 5B so Miles’s ghost “wouldn’t be alone” after her death (340). After Ella kidnaps her, Rosie describes Ella as “pale and ghoulish” (335), suggesting that Ella’s love has the side effect of making her monstrous.

Charles Aldridge is a secondary antagonist in The New Couple in 5B. He is described as “tall and snowy haired, soft-spoken” (76). Despite his age and quiet nature, Charles is “enormous, a powerhouse who exercises daily […] and seems twenty years younger than he is” (52). Charles is characterized by his extensive history at the Windermere. When the novel begins, he is in his seventies and “has lived there all his life” (279). His grandfather had been one of the building’s original investors, and Charles acts as the “eternal board president” (181), responsible for “running most things at the Windermere” (206). Charles’s extensive family history with the Windermere explains his desperation to reunite the apartments on the 5th floor: “[I]t nearly killed Charles to put up that wall and sell off half of his family legacy” (336). Charles is also defined by his history with the occult. He “comes from a long line of psychic mediums, magicians, and astrologists” (278), and his grandmother, a famous medium, spent her life “channeling the dead for the wealthy of New York, holding seances in that very apartment” (279). Although Charles himself does not practice magic, his association with the occult adds tension to the novel.

Abi Bekiri is a secondary antagonist in The New Couple in 5B. He is the doorman and elevator operator of the Windermere Apartments and works alongside Charles and Ella Aldridge in extorting the residents of the building. He is described as “an impeccable man with manicured nails and clear, dark eyes” whose “black hair is carefully cut and styled” (153). Although he is “seventy-eight years old” during the main narrative (242), Rosie sees him as “ageless—maybe he’s forty, maybe he’s sixty” (153). As the elevator operator, he is described as “a romantic apparition of New York past” (42). In the 1963 narrative, Willa describes Abi as having “smooth brown skin and shining dark hair” (294). In both timelines, Abi is characterized by the difference between his proper appearance and the crimes he commits. In 1963, Willa describes him as “proper, slim, vigilant” by day, while “at night, my lover, my dance partner, a creature like me who comes alive after the sun sets and the music starts to play” (297). In the present, his “upright, polite, and helpful” nature contrasts the dark secret of his surveillance and extortion (42), which is revealed in the novel’s final chapters.

Willa Winter is a secondary narrator in The New Couple in 5B. She is an ambitious young dancer who lived in apartment 5B of the Windermere in the 1960s with her husband Paul. She is described as beautiful, but “too big […] too thick” to be a professional dancer (57). She is characterized by her inner turmoil about the discrepancy between her dreams of stardom and the reality of her life as the respectable wife of a writer. Willa feels as if she doesn’t “come alive until I’m out in the world—talking, laughing, drinking, dancing” (56). She imagines “the glittering lights, the parties, and auditions and opening nights” of her life in New York as “the blood in my veins” (92). While Paul spends his days writing and his nights at home, Willa is “restless […] can’t settle” and is always “out looking for something” (55, 58). Although Willa “never dreamed that I would be an unfaithful wife” (55), she fears falling into “a grave of domesticity” and begins an affair with Abi (93). She repeatedly tries to end the affair but is unable to do so before Paul finds out. Ultimately, Willa’s tragedy is that she “can neither be the star I wanted to be, nor the wife and mother that Paul hopes for” (92).

Max is Rosie Lowan’s best friend and primary editor. He is described as looking “the part of the fancy New York publishing star with his tortoiseshell glasses, and clean-shaven face, his carefully styled hair” (117). As an editor, Max acts as a kind of foil to Rosie’s creativity. While Rosie always wanted to be a writer, Max “never wanted to be anything else more than an editor, the one who helped talented writers do their best work” (13). While Rosie is a relative newcomer to New York, Max is “a bit of a New York city nerd [and] prides himself on knowing about iconic buildings, hidden alleys, obscure historical facts” (126). While Rosie maintains some belief in the supernatural, Max is “someone with both feet planted firmly in the real world” (118). Max is also characterized by his complicated relationship with Rosie, which straddles the line between platonic and romantic. Rosie values the “safety and comfort of his enduring friendship” and calls him “the most true and loyal friend a person can ever have” (59, 378). However, she also acknowledges that “there’s always been an undercurrent between Max and me” (60), Max accompanies Rosie to her niece’s baptism in the Ozarks at the end of the novel, suggesting a more serious relationship.