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Summary
Part 3: Chapters 34-38
Chapter 34: STEPHEN, November 2013
Busy with law school, Stephen grows bored and subsequently annoyed with Alice. He wants to sleep with someone else. He already cheated on her once, in Miami, during Luke’s bachelor party weekend. Luke says he doesn’t judge Stephen for it, since his relationship with Alice is not serious, which makes Stephen defensive. His family asks if he and Alice are thinking about marriage. Stephen moves in with Alice when her grandfather lets her have his rent-controlled apartment. For their one-year anniversary, Alice and Stephen visit Pittsburgh, and Stephen meets her family. He finds them distressingly typical and expresses contempt of people who are satisfied with average lives. He has disappointing sex with Alice while thinking about Lucy’s body. Later, he texts Lucy, but she does not respond.
Chapter 35: LUCY, January 2014
Back at Baird for senior year, Lucy is happier. Jackie forgives her for lying about Writers on the Riviera and encourages her not to give up becoming a travel writer just because she had to drop her journalism minor and her work for the student publication, The Lantern. The Prozac Dr. Wattenbarger prescribed Lucy for clinical depression makes her feel so much better that she does not tell him about the Unforgivable Thing. When they discuss Stephen, the doctor tells her Stephen’s inability to feel guilt for his actions suggests narcissistic and sociopathic tendencies. He instructs Lucy to keep him out of her life, even if he contacts her. When Stephen does text her at Thanksgiving, she resists the temptation to reply. She reconnects with Billy, who takes her onto the roof to watch the sunset. His kiss feels like coming into safe harbor.
Chapter 36: STEPHEN, March 2014
Stephen rides the train to Long Island, where he will meet Sadie and take her to visit Baird. Bored with Alice, Stephen dreams of seeing Lucy. Although she never responded to his previous text, he sends another message, reasoning she will not be able to avoid him when he is on campus. During the flight to Baird, Stephen savors the feeling of taking off. He remembers his childhood fear of flying, which he overcame by learning about the physics of air travel. He considers his discomfort with the intangible and unknown, reflecting that he is unlike most people in preferring the cold facts of science.
Chapter 37: LUCY, March 2014
Lucy wakes up with Billy, who leaves to study after confirming their plan to drive to Bear Mountain in the afternoon. She is panicked by Stephen’s message from the previous night. While she drinks coffee, Stephen rings the doorbell and lets himself into the apartment. Lucy is upset by his presence. Unsure of what to do, she puts on Marilyn’s sweater as a layer of protection. Stephen tells her he and Sadie are going to Big Bear Lake that night and that they plan to attend the same concert Lucy and Billy are going to. Lucy is conflicted at the prospect of seeing him over the weekend, feeling hope and hatred along with her familiar deep physical attraction to him. Despite Dr. Wattenbarger’s advice, she knows she will always follow her heart more than her head.
Chapter 38: STEPHEN, March 2014
Jared tells Stephen where Lucy lives and that she and Billy will be going to Bear Mountain that weekend. He invites Stephen and Sadie to come to his parents’ house, knowing Stephen wants to see Lucy, and Stephen in turn invites Wrigley. Once they are there, Lucy invites them to the condo Pippa rented to drink at before the concert. He watches her and thinks about having sex with her, noticing she is with Billy. Once at the concert, Stephen texts Lucy, who comes to stand with him. Ultimately, they end up back at Jared’s house together, where Lucy ignores Billy’s calls and has sex with Stephen in the room Sadie sleeps in. Afterward, they fight, but Stephen tells Lucy that he plans to move out of Alice’s apartment by June and suggests he can be in a relationship with her after she graduates if she moves to New York.
Analysis
Stephen’s instant disgust with Alice’s dog, Nellie, is part of a motif that extends throughout the book. In the novel, dogs are cherished family members, from Alice’s Nellie to Lucy’s Hickory to the DeMarcos’ own Skipper. Other characters love the dogs, as demonstrated by Stephen’s father tossing carrots to Skipper and rubbing her ears and Alice’s genuine grief at Nellie’s illness. Stephen, however, finds dogs detestable for their emotional qualities, which he sees as neediness. He shoos Skipper away and, after hearing that Nellie is dying, has an immediate urge to kick her in the face. Dogs remind Stephen of the emotions other people have and the way those emotions lead them to rely on one another. When Alice wants his attention as her boyfriend, he compares her to a dog. He describes her reaction to his coldness as looking as if he had kicked her in the face, mirroring his previous urge to kick Nellie when he looked at her.
Lucy’s time with Dr. Wattenbarger changes her life, not only because of his treatment of her as a patient but because of the insight he gives her into Stephen’s behavior. In this section of the book, mental illness is a prominent theme. Through her time in Dr. Wattenbarger’s care, Lucy learns to treat some of her emotions as a chemical imbalance, a clinical depression treatable with prescription medicines. While he agrees that this approach is only a partial solution, Dr. Wattenbarger sees her listlessness not as intentional withdrawal or only a result of her troubled relationship with Stephen, but as a treatable medical condition. At the same time, he argues that Stephen’s behavior is to some degree intractable, an issue of personality disorder and not just voluntary behavior. His analysis of Stephen as a narcissist and sociopath provides some clarity to Lucy, as it represents a framework for understanding that he will not change.
Billy, Lucy’s boyfriend in this section of the novel, functions as a foil to Stephen. While Stephen is charming, he doesn’t genuinely care for Lucy, whereas Billy is gently devoted to her. Stephen values wealth and its trappings, while Billy values the outdoors, impressing Lucy not with a ride on his buddy’s boat but a view of a beautiful sunset. Lucy goes camping with him, willing to try a new thing for his sake. Stephen dislikes exercise, but Billy is a regular at the same yoga studio as Lucy, although he thinks it is too corporate, a criticism that would never occur to Stephen. Lucy is attracted to Billy, but not in the excited and obsessive way she is drawn to Stephen. When she first kisses Billy, her thoughts are of coming into harbor, feeling safe with him. While that is appealing, safety ultimately cannot compete with the thrill she gets from Stephen.
Lucy’s conflicting feelings when Stephen wants to see her at Big Bear Lake represent the way she must choose between her head and her heart. Lucy’s rational side remembers Dr. Wattenbarger’s advice about Stephen and knows she should keep her distance. However, she is emotionally and sexually drawn to him, even knowing the pain he has caused her and having the psychiatrist’s assurance that he will not change. For Lucy at this point in the book, the choice is so simple as to barely be a choice at all. Her rational understanding is strong, but ultimately it cannot compete with her desire. Lucy’s answer to her own rhetorical question of whether to follow her head or her heart is to always follow her heart. However, this section of the text foreshadows that Lucy’s view will change, noting that in this moment, “I didn’t think I would ever stop believing that.” Although Lucy knows from the moment Stephen says he wants her attention that she will give in to him, this aside points to her eventually coming to a different understanding of the balance between rational understanding and emotional desire, suggesting that by the end of the book, she will have come to the conclusion that love alone is not enough.
