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Summary
Part 3: Chapters 26-29
Chapter 26: STEPHEN, May 2012
By graduation, Stephen has a job offer at the brokerage firm in New York. Diana will be attending graduate school in Saint Louis. After a graduation lunch with her family, Diana wonders if she should move to New York instead, so they can be together, but Stephen discourages her from giving up her spot at Washington University. He believes she would never do well in New York and is best suited for life in the Midwest. They leave things open and plan to see each other in August, when Diana plans to visit New York. Stephen begins work and moves into Luke’s apartment in Manhattan. Luke spends all his time with Kathleen, and their other roommate, Geoff, is rarely home. Bored and lonely, Stephen texts Lucy. She does not respond, but he is confident that she will, understanding by now how her mind works.
Chapter 27: LUCY, June 2012
Two weeks into the summer, with another three weeks until her Vanity Fair internship begins, Lucy is hanging out with Lydia and Helen when Stephen’s text arrives. Her friends advise her to wait twenty-four hours before responding. They comment on her increasing thinness and ask if she is anorexic or addicted to cocaine, both of which she denies. When Stephen picks Lucy up for the dinner date they have arranged, CJ meets him and dislikes him. Stephen drives Lucy to his house to meet his dad, before taking her to the marina and Carl’s boat. Out on the water, he presents her with pizza, which she eats so that he won’t suspect that she has issues with food. They have a long talk about their relationship, and Stephen apologizes but blames his behavior on Baird and Diana. Promising a fresh start, he says he could love her. Lucy seizes on that notion. After they have sex, he gives her a present of a “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” poster.
Chapter 28: STEPHEN, August 2012
At the end of a hot summer, Stephen calls Lucy from the office and says he can’t spend the weekend with her because he has to work. Lucy, who is anxious to see more of him before returning to Baird, is frustrated by the news. They have been together much of the summer, and Stephen has even enjoyed having her around, but Diana is coming to visit for the weekend. They have tickets to the musical Wicked, and Stephen is looking forward to sex with her. After work, he comes home to the news that Luke and Kathleen have gotten engaged. He finally returns Diana’s calls, and she breaks up with him, telling him she has met someone else, someone she trusts. Since the Wicked tickets are nonrefundable, she tells him to keep them. Stephen is angry but aroused at the idea of Diana having sex with someone else. After their phone call, he texts Lucy to invite her to the show.
Chapter 29: LUCY, August 2012
The night before her flight back to Baird, Lucy returns to Long Island. Her final weekend with Stephen has left her sad, as does the realization that CJ is showing subtle signs of aging. Stephen has told her she is welcome in his bed at Thanksgiving break but is unwilling to commit to a long-distance relationship. Pippa and Bree will be abroad for the first semester, and Lucy will live with Jackie. She regrets not applying to a study abroad program, having assumed she would do Writers on the Riviera, and reflects on her general lack of motivation. CJ comes in to help her pack and expresses concern that Stephen doesn’t appreciate Lucy, which makes Lucy defensive and angry. CJ tells her she will always be there for her. The two hold hands. Lucy shuts her eyes and cries. When she opens her eyes, she sees that CJ has also been crying.
Analysis
Stephen’s sense of superiority makes him feels entitled to success, which for Stephen is living in New York and being abundantly wealthy. At Diana’s graduation lunch, when she suggests coming to New York to be with him, he discourages her, reminding her she would hate it. In his imagination, Diana would not fit in with New York life because of her mediocrity. Stephen imagines Diana living a contented life in the Midwest, pathetic in its distance from the wealth of New York and the city’s cultural power. He looks down on people who are happy with their ordinary lives, and his insecurity and compulsion to feel superior to others is evident in his inner monologue.
In Chapter 27, the conversation between Lucy, Helen, and Lydia reveals tension between the support they offer for each other’s relationships and the judgement they show in policing each other’s bodies. Lydia and Helen council Lucy about responding to Stephen. Unaware of Stephen’s previous behavior, they advise her without the judgement her Baird friends have about Stephen. Lucy is aware of this but welcomes the pretense of having “typical” boyfriend struggles. At the same time, the women are critical of each other’s bodies, indicating the perceived value and competitive nature of thinness among female characters. Lucy observes that Lydia gained weight at college, but when Helen, irritated at Lydia, points out that she doesn’t need more chips, Lucy is quick to inwardly criticize Helen’s “flabby” arms. When Lydia calls her “skinny,” Lucy feels pride in her tiny body and the restraint she exercised to get it. Likewise, when Helen says she orders bagels with the bread’s interior removed to manage her weight, Lucy feels superior, knowing the correct order is no bagel at all. She’s contemptuous of Helen’s size and inability to restrict her calories.
The scene on Carl’s boat on Long Island Sound echoes the night of Stephen and Lucy’s first meeting on the boat at Lake Mead. While their relationship is more complicated now, the boat nevertheless represents revisiting the feelings of freedom and possibility Lucy experienced at Lake Mead. Just as Lake Mead fills Lucy with hope for the freedom she believes she will experience at Baird, this trip gives her hope for the summer with Stephen, one where she won’t have to sneak around to avoid Diana. The stars overhead recall when Stephen first gives Lucy her nickname, a connection underscored in this scene by his gifting her a “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” poster for her birthday. The scene seems to Lucy a culmination of what she has hoped for—Stephen’s focused attention in a world without Diana. She further believes she has achieved her wish when Stephen tells her he thinks he could love her.
Stephen’s view of marriage is an extension of his view on human relationships generally: it is a structure that exists to make his life easier. He describes marriage in this section of the book as a business arrangement, a way to handle taxes and healthcare spending more efficiently, to provide personal social stability, and to ensure someone will bear his children. He is offended by the giddy joy of Luke and Kathleen’s engagement announcement, supposedly on the basis of their irrationality in believing that they are especially perfect for one another, rather than just convenient people to enter into a contractual relationship with. However, this explanation is incomplete. Stephen’s initial reaction to Kathleen’s ring is not boredom but panic, indicated by his sudden nausea. Moreover, his anger at his father’s continued love for Nora suggests that Stephen’s problem with marriage is a fear of the kind of love his father feels—one that cannot be willed out of existence even when that would be convenient. Stephen’s extreme discomfort at the prospect of Luke’s marriage underscores Stephen’s difficulty with the idea of emotions he cannot control through will alone.
