This quote offers two examples of a lack of courage. In the first, Jacob "never" had the courage to tell Marlena how August really died. He's so concerned about this that he uses the word "never" twice. Because he didn't have the courage to tell the truth, he ended up lying to her for six decades. Second, Rosie ended up doing Jacob's dirty work for him. She did what Jacob couldn't, or wouldn't do: she killed August. Jacob benefited without having to live with the murder on his own conscience.

Jacob had many wonderful things in his life, but most of them are gone by the end. There was a time – after he and Marlena escaped from August and had a family – that they floated in a happy existence. But that went by so quickly that we barely hear about it in the book. It seems unfair for Jacob that the good parts of his life would go by quickly and the bad ones drag out so long.

At the beginning of the book, Jacob is unsure of his age, but when he gets back to the circus he knows it exactly. He feels young again even as he acknowledges that he is "ancient and cranky." He is finally back in a place where he's wanted and fits in, where he feels like himself again.