The Memory Keeper's Daughter July 1977 Summary & Analysis

1977

Summary: July 1977

David, Norah, and Paul spend two weeks in Aruba after Norah wins the trip for the top cruise sales. She’s been working at the travel firm for five years and bought the business when her boss retired the year before.

David’s obsession with photography takes over their marriage. On the beach when Norah could be enjoying the sun and surf, she instead cooperates with David as he puts her through photo shoots to capture unique compositions conveying his worldview. As he is coaching Norah through a particularly arcane photo setup on the beach, they meet Howard, who is alone, doing business in Aruba and going through a divorce. Howard shares David’s passion for photography, and he compliments David’s composition and Norah’s beauty. Norah feels an attraction and impulsively invites him to dinner. Howard’s interest in Norah opens up possibilities for intimacy that has disappeared from her marriage. That evening, in a brief touch, Howard makes clear he reciprocates her feelings. As Howard and David discuss his photographs, Norah realizes she has become objectified in David’s imagination.

When David and Paul leave to go deep-sea fishing the next day, Norah walks up the beach to Howard’s place wearing a carefree, modest outfit of white shorts and a turquoise blouse with flamingos. When Howard asks to sketch her on the beach outside his cottage, on impulse Norah strips bare. She leaves her clothes on the beach as they enter his home and make love. She continues the affair for the ten days left in the vacation.

Analysis: July 1977

Norah has brought to fruition her compulsion to escape. She now is a highly successful owner of a travel agency who regularly trots the globe. Even though she has staked out her personal independence, she remains committed to her marriage. On an idyllic tropical island vacation that she earned with hard work, Norah continues to defer to David. She contorts on cue in skimpy bathing suits with the surf washing sand in all her orifices so he can create unique pictures. Howard comes along at that moment, and his recognition of her beauty feeds her famished spirit. She realizes how much she has missed being appreciated. Later, when David describes to Howard his artistic approach to photographing Norah, she understands how he has transformed her into an object to be manipulated in his landscapes. David no longer sees the real flesh-and-blood Norah. Angered by this revelation, she takes stock of her identity, her hair beginning to gray, her mothering of a nearly grown son coming to an end. When Howard signals his interest in her, she is primed to reciprocate.

The next morning, Norah plans to secretly rendezvous with Howard even before David and Paul leave for their all-day excursion up the coast. The details about the clothing she chooses will come to have significance when she leaves it on the beach. She walks to Howard’s place, and he watches her approach, waiting for her with his camera obscura, an antique precursor to the modern camera. Like David, he also asks her to pose for him. As Howard looks through the aperture, she strips to stand naked as if challenging him to really see her. When he does, he abandons the camera to meet her in full intimacy, a striking contrast to David using the camera to mediate reality. When they retire to his bedroom to make love, Norah feels like she has stopped time. They continue their passionate meetings for the remainder of the vacation, and the affair feels like freedom to Norah.

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