Book Lovers

“That’s the thing about women. There’s no good way to be one. Wear your emotions on your sleeve and you’re hysterical. Keep them tucked away where your boyfriend doesn’t have to tend to them and you’re a heartless bitch.”

As Nora thinks about how both she and her more emotional mother have been criticized for their contrasting way of handling feelings, she draws attention to the sexism inherent in a patriarchal society, which stereotypes and labels women in addition to pitting them against each other. The idea that “there’s no good way” to be a woman indicates her sad acceptance that she will be criticized regardless of what she does.

“Mom used to say New York was a great place to have no money. There’s so much free art and beauty, so much incredible, cheap food. But having money in New York, I remember her saying one winter as we window-shopped on the Upper East Side, Libby and I hanging on to her gloved hands, now that would be magical.”

Nora’s mother’s view of New York is an unconventional one, as before she acknowledges its being an expensive city where the luxuries of life can be experienced, she celebrates the ways it can be enjoyed on a budget. The ideas of free art and beauty and superlative cheap food focus on the city’s accessible bounty. The image of little girls holding on to their mother’s gloved hands is a nostalgic one that resonates with childhood memories. Here, Henry erodes the dichotomy that positions the country as innocent and the city as a sophisticated, inaccessible place.

“He’s not as striking as the door-holding Adonis, but good-looking in the way of a mere mortal, with coarse, dark hair and a lean elegance. He’s about my height, maybe a hair taller or shorter, dressed in a black sweatshirt whose sleeves are pushed up and olive trousers with black shoes I have no choice but to describe as sexy.” 

This description of Charlie sets him up as an attractive but realistic romantic hero. He is elegant and about Nora’s height, rather than the overly tall masculine stereotype represented by his “door-holding Adonis” cousin, Shepherd. While Shepherd conforms to the stereotype of the hot country guy whom Libby intended for her sister, in this subverted romance of partial transformation, the more citified man will be Nora’s intended partner.

“They called her the Shark, but she didn’t mind. The name fit. For one thing, sharks could only swim forward. As a rule, Nadine Winters never looked back. Her life was predicated on rules.”

Nora witnesses the caricature of her own caricature in Dusty Fielding’s latest character, Nadine Winters. That Nadine has the same first initial as Nora and the last name “Winters” ends in an “s” like “Stephens” reinforces the identification. Additionally, Winters aligns with Nora’s perception of herself as the ice queen in the romance genre. She will later learn that in her industry she is known as the Shark. The perception that she does not care what others think of her makes her especially frightening in a patriarchal society that encourages women to continually seek the approval of others. However, Nora’s embarrassment by this caricature indicates that there is more to her than the stereotype.

“I would’ve placed it sooner, but it smells different on him, the way Mom’s signature lemon-lavender scent hits different on Libby, a note of vanilla drawn out that was never there before. Charlie’s rendition of BOOK is spicier, warmer than mine.”

Here, scent is used as a metaphor to describe how two people who appear to have the same essence, whether the driven characters Charlie and Nora or the more romantic Mom and Libby, can be different. The sense of smell reveals character traits; while Libby and Mom choose the typically summery, feminine scents of lemon and lavender, Nora has a more autumnal gender-neutral scent. However, distinctiveness persists even in the same scent, as BOOK smells different on her than on Charlie.

“He made the world open up around me, like there were colors I’d never seen, new levels of happiness I couldn’t have imagined.”

This passage reveals that Nora found that falling in love with Jakob was a transformative experience that she deeply enjoyed. Thus, despite her composed exterior, Nora is capable of overwhelming feeling.

“If I were normal, I might’ve cried. Instead I’d sit there, clutching the vase, and just fucking shake. Like there were emotions deep in me, but too many layers of ash lay over them, deadening them to nothing but a tectonic murmur.”

Nora judges herself for not crying after her mother’s death. However, her shaking while holding her mother’s vase indicates a high level of fear and emotions that she is afraid to process. The image of layers of ash parallels the ashes of the dead, and it is as though a part of Nora has been buried.

“I can still smell her lemon-lavender scent, feel her arms around me, hear her voice – Let it out, sweet girl. Just one look and those five words, and it would all come spilling out.”

While Nora is emotionally blocked, the memory of her mother encouraging her to express her feelings is poignant. The smell and the touch of her mother’s body convey how close Nora still feels to her. Moreover, the epithet “sweet girl,” the antithesis of the ice queen or shark image that others have projected onto Nora, evokes the image of her as vulnerable and recalls a time when she felt cherished and adored. Although her mother was erratic, Nora always felt safe with her, as is shown by her ability to express her feelings before her.

“Then I started just changing things as I read; fixing endings if Libby didn’t like how they played out, or if all the main characters were boys, I’d add a girl with strawberry blond hair.”

Nora’s primitive attempt at editing as a child in Mrs. Freeman’s bookshop shows how central Libby is to her thoughts. She changes the protagonists’ gender and appearance so that Libby sees herself represented and gains confidence, and she changes the endings to protect her. Nora continues this behavior into adulthood. Ironically, Nora’s relationship with Libby needs an edit and an update.

“I like that you’re anonymous there […] You’re whoever you decide to be. In places like this, you never shake off what people first thought about you.”

Charlie contrasts New York with Sunshine Falls, stating that in the big city, the potential for reinvention and deciding one’s destiny is possible, whereas in his small hometown, one can never shake off one’s reputation. However, the novel shows that while reputations stick in Sunshine Falls, the same is true in the city, where both he and Nora managed to become notorious in the city’s publishing industry.

“I read once that sunflowers always orient themselves to face the sun. That’s what being near Charlie Lastra is like for me. There could be a raging wildfire racing toward me from the west and I’d be straining eastward toward his warmth.”

The sunflower and sun metaphor shows Nora’s instinctive and irresistible attraction toward Charlie. Despite her best intentions, she cannot go against this force of nature and give him up.

“Tropes come from somewhere, and as it turns out, from time immemorial, women have been slow-dancing to staticky country music with hot architect-carpenters as deep shadows unfurl over picturesque valleys, crickets singing along like so many violins.”

Nora recognizes the scene she creates with Shepherd of dancing to country music in the beauty of nature as a romantic trope. However, since she is an atypical romantic heroine and resists many of the stereotypes of this genre, she shows her disdain for this construct by noticing its exaggerated, hackneyed details, such as “crickets chirping along like so many violins.” This indicates that rather than being swept up in the experience, Nora stands outside it in an observant mode. This contrasts entirely with her feelings for Charlie.

“We were happy. But that’s not what Libby’s telling Sally. She’s saying, ‘Mom was broke, tired, and lonely. She put her career ahead of absolutely everything and was miserable because of it’.”

This extract shows that Libby and Nora remember different versions of their childhood. While Nora remembers Mom as spirited and chasing her dreams and their childhood as fun, Libby remembers Mom as sad and their childhood as chaotic. The difference in their memories of the past indicates that the sisters will also have contrasting ideas of future happiness. This will play out in the final section of the novel when they choose different places to live.

“Libby and I used to joke that Freeman Books was our father. It helped raise us, made us feel safe, brought us little presents when we felt down.”

The idea of a bookstore as a father figure in the place of an absent father and an erratic mother shows how books became a safe place for both Stephens girls. As Freeman’s is a city institution, by extension Henry also shows that the city itself helped parent the girls and brought them stability.

“I felt like […] everyone was looking at me, and they could all see what’s wrong with me. And I’m so used to feeling like […] I’m the wrong kind of woman, but with Libby it’s always been different. She’s the only person I’ve ever really felt like myself with, since my mom died. But it turns out that Dusty was right about me. That’s who I am, even to my sister. The wrong kind of woman.”

While Nora is used to failing the gender stereotype dictating that women should be the opposite of her and has accepted that strangers will see her as career-focused and cold, she is disappointed that Libby also sees her this way. Despite her efforts to nurture and protect Libby, her sister seems to see Nora the way the rest of the world does. Nora’s estrangement from Libby and confidence in Charlie mark a turning point in her relationships, as she distances herself from her sister and moves toward her partner.

“Fear of the money running out again […] Of wanting anything badly enough that it will destroy me when I can’t have it. Of loving someone I can’t hold on to […] Of watching something break that I don’t know how to fix. I am afraid, always, of the kind of pain I know we won’t survive a second time.”

Nora is motivated by the fear of reliving the moment after her mother’s death and Jakob’s abandonment of her when everything was uncertain. She tightly controls her money and her emotions and doesn’t allow herself to pursue what she truly desires, whether in work or in her personal life, due to the fear of being unable to cope when she inevitably loses it. She feels that she needs to fix things rather than accept them as they are. The rhythmic repetition of clauses that begin with the word “of” indicates the relentless cycle of chaos that Nora feels will ensue if she allows things to spin out of control. Nora will have to come to terms with her fear of loss if she wants to be with Charlie.

“At her funeral, I remember tears glossing my eyes, the pinprick sensation at the back of my nose, and then, beside me, the sound of Libby breaking, descending into sobs. I remember catching myself holding my breath, like I was waiting. And then I realized I was waiting. For her. For Mom to put her arms around us.”

This memory evokes how vulnerable Nora felt at her mother’s funeral. However, her feeling of responsibility for Libby stopped her from crying. The image of Nora waiting for her mother to put her arms around them indicates that she has spent a decade waiting for someone to give her permission to cry. She longs to be comforted.

“His job. His apartment. Like he’s just handing over the life he’s worked so hard for, wholesale. Giving up the city where he belongs. Where he feels like himself. Where he doesn’t feel wrong or useless.”

This passage highlights the scope of Charlie’s sacrifice when he gives up his job and life to stay in Sunshine Falls and help his family. He will have to trade a life that he built on his own terms for the feelings of wrongness and uselessness that he had growing up. The fact that he entrusts his job and apartment to Nora and her family indicates his love for her and his faith that she belongs in the city.

“Ever since then, it’s been hard to imagine letting anyone close like that. Not when I’m so fucking broken I can’t sleep anywhere but my own bed. Even here it’s hard, with Libby right next to me. I’ve just never trusted myself since then.”

After having sex with Charlie, Nora reveals the truth about Jakob and his betrayal. Although Jakob let her down, the person Nora finds it most difficult to trust is herself. The idea of never allowing herself to sleep in anyone else’s bed but her own indicates that she wants to protect herself from having to get too close to people. The epithet “fucking broken” indicates that despite her efforts to hide or ignore her feelings, Nora realizes how deeply wounded she is.

“There’s still no happy ending for a woman who wants it all, the kind who lies awake aching with furious hunger, unspent ambition making her bones rattle in her body.”

As Nora contemplates the choice between a life alone in New York or one in Sunshine Falls with Charlie, she realizes there is no satisfactory option for modern women who want to fulfill the needs for love and for a satisfying career. The idea of aching with furious hunger shows the potency of Nora’s desires in all aspects of her life and the sense that it will be an all-or-nothing decision; her two competing needs are equally vital, but feeding one means starving the other.

“All this time I thought being seen as monstrous was the worst thing that could happen to me. Now I realize I’d rather be frigid than what I really am, deep down, every second of every day: weak, helpless, so fucking scared it’s going to come apart.”

Nora thought the defamatory portrait of her as Nadine was the worst thing that could happen to her. When the announcement of Libby’s departure from the city brings her to tears for the first time in a decade, however, she realizes that her coldness insulated her from the fear she feels. Experiencing the depth of her fears and loneliness is far more painful for her than being perceived as cold and heartless.

“This wanting, it feels good, like a bruise you need to press on, a reminder that there are things in life so valuable that you must risk the pain of losing them for the joy of briefly having them.”

This passage marks a turning point for Nora. She goes from trying to tightly control her desires to giving herself fully to the moment and seeking to make her experiences as rich as possible, even if that means embracing pain as a reminder of past joy. She is no longer afraid of desire, even if she must risk never having it fulfilled.

“She wanted me to go with her, but she’s happy that I’m getting what I want. I wanted her to stay, but I hope she finds everything she’s looking for and more.”

Nora and Libby resign themselves to wishing each other well and letting each other go in the direction of their dreams, as opposed to trying to make the other fit in with their own plans. This marks the end of their codependent relationship and the beginning of real closeness that is based on mutual trust and allows space for each person’s individual interests.