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Maybe that’s not the only question we should be asking, my grandfather said. Maybe we should also think about whether we’d really want it to be different. We could think about whether she actually did us a favor in her own way…
In “Follow the Money,” Hannah recalls a conversation with her grandfather in the wake of her mother’s abandonment as she wonders how to console Bailey after Owen’s disappearance. Hannah remembers her grandfather pointing out to her, gently and lovingly, that her mother’s painful abandonment brought them together as a family. Throughout the novel, Hannah turns to memories of her grandfather for comfort and insight on the right things to say and do. Hannah’s memories of her grandfather do more than just comfort her. They also ground and orient her in this chaotic, confusing situation, providing a template for how she can behave. Though she does not recognize it at the time, his words foreshadow what will happen between Bailey and Hannah. Neither Bailey nor Hannah would choose for Owen to flee or want a life without him. However, his absence does give them a means of bonding with each other and becoming a loving family by the end of the book.
"We forget all sorts of things that no one helps us remember," I say.
Hannah reassures Bailey with this line in “Careful What You Wish For” after they flee from Charlie through the streets of Austin. In this scene, Bailey wonders both why she forgot being Kristin and why the name can feel quickly familiar again. Hannah’s explanation encapsulates the book’s approach to memory. For the characters, memories do not exist in a vacuum. People must actively interact with them, and the very nature of this interaction either keeps them alive or brings them back to life. Hannah summons Bailey’s memories of an earlier life by taking her to Austin locations and by asking her probing questions, intended to awaken buried memories. As the novel demonstrates, memories form an important aspect of human identity, but they are fragile. It is impossible to remember everything that happens, so other things are needed to retain a memory. This line reveals how much memories depend on community and relationships. Without Hannah, Bailey’s memories of her early childhood would have remained hidden in the recesses in her mind. Just as memory is a vital aspect of personal identity, so too are the personal relationships that sustain and provoke them.
“Gotta pick a piece of wood," I said. "It all starts with picking a good piece of wood. If that’s no good, you have nowhere good to go."
Hannah offers Owen this explanation about woodturning following their first date in “Two Years and Four Months Ago.” Superficially, the passage seems limited to Hannah’s craft, but its implications apply to the entire novel. Indeed, the quotation pinpoints why, despite all Owen’s lies, she trusts her instincts. It shows that, in her heart, Hannah knows Owen is good. No matter how upsetting the revelations about him appear to be, she returns to her certainty in his basic nature. Owen seems to have had a similar realization about Hannah early in their relationship. As the will he hides in the piggy bank reveals, Owen knew he could trust Hannah and wanted to be honest with her, even if this was not the prudent thing to do. Hannah’s woodturning work requires patience, lots of hard work, and trust in the potential of the wood she has selected. As a woodturner who derives a lot of her personal identity from her work, Hannah reflects on the qualities that make her good at her craft in her search for Owen. She patiently expends effort into proving that the husband she chose is the good man she always saw.
