48 pages • 1 hour read
Annie LyonsThe Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Eudora goes to the geriatric clinic at the NHS for her yearly checkup. She is surprised to run into Stanley in the waiting room, also there for an appointment. During Eudora’s appointment, the young Dr. Jarvis is concerned about the tremors in her hands and decides to call in Dr. Simmons. Dr. Simmons is rude and bullying, and Eudora calls him out on it and insists that he change his ways. Dr. Jarvis is grateful to Eudora but unsure whether she should stay in medicine. Eudora discourages her from changing careers, saying that Dr. Jarvis has a “role to play” (104), and Dr. Jarvis suggests Eudora has a role as well. Stanley offers Eudora a ride home and invites her to his son’s 50th birthday party at a dance hall; during their prior conversation, she mentioned that she went dancing every Saturday night when she was young.
Back in 1952, the burden of trying to mediate between her mother and her sister was getting more difficult for Eudora’s to carry, but a picture of her father gave her the strength to keep going. One day Stella came home from school and was missing a button from her sweater. Beatrice asked Stella to sew the button right back on and grabbed her arm. In response, Stella slapped Beatrice and called her a “bitch.” Eudora despaired of ever getting Beatrice and Stella to get along but decided to keep trying out of respect for her father’s wishes.
Chapter 7 Summary
Eudora realizes that she has nothing to wear for the birthday party on Saturday. When Rose comes over with cake, she offers to be a “style guru,” and Eudora says she can instead be a “fashion advisor.” Eudora notices that her walls and clothes are all drab and wonders when that happened. She wants to have something a little more colorful or pretty for the party, so Rose and her mother make plans with Eudora to take her shopping.
Dr. Greta Liebermann calls from the assisted suicide clinic to follow up and ask if Eudora has spoken with anyone about her plans. The doctor hears Rose in the background and is amused and pleased to hear that there is someone in Eudora’s life after all. Greta says, “[A]llow yourself to choose life while you are making the decision about your death. It’s important to live life to the full while you can” (120).
The narrative flashes back to Eudora going shopping with her best friend, Sylvia, in 1955. They were searching for a dress for Eudora’s date with Eddie Spencer, whom she met at a dance. The dress Eudora chose was rather expensive but very pretty, and she was excited to wear it on her double date with Eddie, Sylvia, and Ken.
As usual, Stella was getting in trouble at home, so Beatrice begged Eudora to take Stella out to the dance hall with her. Stella flirted with Sylvia’s boyfriend in the car on the way to the dance and then snuck off with some older teenagers who put alcohol in her drink. Eddie got extremely angry, which pleased Stella, who loved to get a rise out of people. Then Stella pretended to trip, spilling her drink on Eudora’s dress. Eudora was never able to get the stain out.
Chapter 8 Summary
Eudora goes shopping with Rose and Maggie, who is pregnant. While Rose races around the department store looking for clothes for the party, Maggie and Eudora have a quiet moment where they both speak about losing their fathers: “Maggie and Eudora look at each other, their mirrored grief giving way to a moment’s understanding” (139).
Rose’s selections are great, and the shop assistant, Beryl, is enchanted with Rose. Rose, Maggie, and Eudora buy donuts to celebrate finding a great outfit.
Stanley’s son’s 50th birthday is held in the same hall where Eudora used to go dancing. Eudora is amazed by all the love and attention Stanley gets from his family. Stanley’s son, Paul, mentions to Eudora that they worry about Stanley becoming forgetful and being alone. Eudora decides to help Stanley however she can. The first thing she needs to do is to pretend to be Stanley’s date to save him from the advances of Gloria, Paul’s mother-in-law. Nevertheless, Eudora feels sorry for Gloria, sensing her desperation.
A flashback to 1957 shows Eudora and Eddie getting engaged. Beatrice gave Eudora her grandmother’s engagement ring, which had diamonds cut like roses. At the engagement party, Stella got drunk by finishing off other guests’ glasses. She insisted on giving a toast, called her mother a “hag,” and then stabbed at the cake, ruining the moment. Eddie pulled Stella out of the room, and Eudora comforted her mother.
Chapter 9 Summary
Ruth, the social worker, is running late. It turns out that her little boy is sick. Eudora insists that she’s fine and that Ruth should go home to be with her little boy.
Rose comes by, worried about Stanley because he hasn’t been out for his usual walk with the dogs. Eudora and Rose walk to Stanley’s house in the rain; they find him still in pajamas and feeling depressed. While Rose takes care of the dogs and makes a snack, Stanley tells Eudora that a dream renewed his sadness about his deceased wife. Eudora sees evidence all around her of the good life he had with Ada and suppresses her aversion to public displays of emotions so that she can comfort Stanley. She promises a picture of Ada that she’ll take care of Stanley.
In 1958, Eudora was happily making wedding plans, picking out her dress, and discussing her future with Sylvia over tea. When she returned home, she got a call from Eddie, who said that he and Stella had fallen in love while volunteering together at a youth group. He called to tell Eudora that he and Stella were running away together. When he handed the phone to Stella, Eudora told her, “Never call this number again. You are dead to us” (174).
Chapters 6-9 Analysis
The flashbacks in this section reveal the extent to which Beatrice and Stella’s actions impacted the trajectory of Eudora’s life, especially in matters of romance. The effects escalate in each chapter, shaping Eudora’s entire relationship with Eddie. First, Beatrice asks Eudora to bring Stella on her date, effectively treating her older daughter as Stella’s parent rather than sister. While Eudora has herself assumed that responsibility, the novel does not portray Beatrice’s actions favorably. Rather, it suggests that Beatrice is happy to pawn off care of a child she irrationally associates with her husband’s death: “Unfortunate as it was for Stella, she was synonymous with tragedy in Beatrice’s mind” (108). The implication is that Beatrice’s attitude toward Stella fuels the latter’s behavioral problems, which in turn predictably color Eudora’s date. Stella deliberately takes actions that she knows will provoke outrage, such as flirting with Ken in front of his girlfriend. Through such episodes, Eudora learns to live her life bracing for the next challenge, helpless to control Stella. However, Stella’s ultimate betrayal—stealing her fiancé away on the eve of her wedding—catches Eudora entirely off guard and causes her to abandon her promise to her father. She washes her hands of Stella, a decision that will haunt her after she learns of Stella’s death.
However, while Eudora’s entanglement with Beatrice and Stella undoubtedly limits her in many ways, the novel suggests Eudora errs in tying her life’s worth so tightly to marriage and children. The romantic love that Eudora could never fully embrace is not the only kind of love, as her platonic relationship with Stanley makes clear. Furthermore, while Eudora never had children of her own, she has the opportunity to fulfill a parent-like role in her Intergenerational Friendship with Rose. One of the lessons Eudora learns over the course of the book is to appreciate the relationships she can have rather than resenting those that were stolen from her.
This insight is at the heart of Greta’s encouragement to Eudora: “[A]llow yourself to choose life while you are making the decision about your death” (120). Although Eudora is reluctant to reconsider her position, there is evidence that she is already unwittingly putting Greta’s words into practice. By accompanying Stanley to the birthday party and allowing Rose and Maggie to take her shopping, Eudora opens up her world to people who have the potential to enrich it. The power of human connection more fully emerges as Eudora begins to open up, first with Maggie about her father and then to Stanley’s family. Lyons writes the following:
There is something pleasant about basking in the warmth of Stanley’s easy relationship with his friends and family. They seem to genuinely enjoy one another’s company and relish being together. It’s a far cry from her own experience of family (147-48).
Eudora is learning that relationships with others can greatly enhance life, and she is intrigued enough to want more. In fact, this is the first step in Reconciling with the Past and Embracing Second Chances: to see where her family fell short but also to discover what family really can be like.
Illustrating these two things is another function of the novel’s flashbacks, which often closely parallel events in the narrative present. For example, when Eudora is searching for an outfit to wear to Stanley’s son’s birthday party, a flashback mentions a beautiful and expensive dress that Stella purposefully stained. The juxtaposition of Eudora’s excitement about dancing in the dress with Stella’s spiteful actions demonstrates how Eudora has learned to close herself off to life’s pleasures. In the present day, the fact that she allows Rose to pick out nice clothes for her to wear to the party demonstrates that she is rediscovering joy and connection.
