"Love in L.A." is a story that is set on the streets of Los Angeles in the heat of traffic. The story is explained to us through a narrator in a third person limited point of view. This view is especially effective in showing us irony and ultimately the theme. In the opening paragraph, Gilb also gives us a deep description of who Jake is, and how he often times dreams about life and what he has or could have.
             Jake is caught up in the middle of traffic and finds nothing else to do, other than think about life. He wonders what it would be like having a "steady job," and what he would have to give up in his life. Jake ultimately concludes that he would have to give up his "freedom" in order to settle down and take on a "steady job." Ironically, while Jake is imagining about all of this freedom that he has, he collides with the car that is in front of him.
             After thinking all about this "freedom" that he has, Jake is caught up in the real world and an accident that he has caused. Being without a job, and insurance, Jake is left with out anything to do, other than to lie to the lady he hit. Jake immediately thinks up quick lies and in the mean time is very charming to the Venezuelan lady. These lies also reinstate Jake's character as being one lived on the edge, with no job or set life. Even his license plate had "expired so long ago," that he got one from the junkyard.
             The theme is one the biggest parts that Gilb is getting across to the reader. He is telling us how work and a "steady" life will calm down the wild life that people have. For Jake it took a fender bender for his freedom to swell up. He stopped dreaming about this fantasy life and started thinking about reality and how settling down might be better for him.
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