Irvington is both a concrete destination in Matt and Olivia’s life and a setting through which the novel registers the divide between suburban comfort and the labor that sustains it. At its bus stop, Matt sees workers returning from wealthier areas; later, he and Olivia travel there together in a taxi, physically close but emotionally estranged.

Setting and Social Contrast

Waiting alone for the number 70 bus, Matt watches exhausted domestic workers come from the opposite direction, trudging back from wealthier environs toward more modest homes. No one speaks or smiles, and nobody is waiting to greet them. The passage turns an ordinary bus stop into a view of suburban life from its overlooked underside: the workers’ movement between rich and poor districts reveals the labor and unequal conditions beneath the apparent ease of the suburbs.

A Destination in Matt and Olivia’s Marriage

Irvington is the address Matt gives the taxi driver after he and Olivia leave together. The driver, who says he is from Ghana, tells them that two of his six children live with him while the others remain in Ghana with his wife. Matt tries to respond to the conversation; Olivia looks out the window in silence. When Matt reaches for her hand, she lets him take it, but it feels lifeless. Their destination is shared, yet the ride makes plain the distance between them.

A Place of Arrival and Strain

Irvington also figures in a later exchange about a visit: Matt says that he has straightened things out and that they will arrive in twenty minutes. The other speaker offers to prepare the guest room, but Matt says not to go to any trouble. The brief exchange presents Irvington as a place people travel to and receive one another, while the surrounding domestic tensions give that arrival a guarded quality. Across these appearances, the town connects everyday travel, household life, and the uneven social world Matt observes.