One Italian Summer

“‘Love is beautiful,’ my mother told him. ‘And I know how true that is. But you’re both so young. Don’t you want to live a little before you settle down? There’s so much to do and so much time to be married.’”

Serle foreshadows the eventual reveal of how Carol left Chuck and baby Katy behind because of her own fear of being married young. She does not want Katy or Eric to feel the same way, so she questions their decision to get married before truly experiencing the world. Due to this belief, Katy started to question her own decision to marry Eric in her early twenties.

“I no longer belong to my mother…I do not know how to find my center without her, because that’s what she was. I was Carol Silver’s daughter. Now I am simply a stranger.”

Katy’s character development begins with a chance at a clear state with the loss of her mother. Due to their close relationship, Katy does not have her own identity, so the novel will uncover her journey toward the discovery of her identity. This quote also serves to establish the importance that Katy places on what it means to “belong” to another person—even to oneself.

“Positano is a good place to let life return to you.”

The timelessness of the city will allow Katy to develop her sense of identity and allow her to process her emotions without the constraints of time. This quotation also foreshadows young Carol’s eventual introduction, since her life will literally “return” to Katy. This comment illustrates how symbolic and influential Positano will be in Katy’s character development.

“I think that maybe there were parts of her I never made an effort to see. Parts of her that just wanted to drink outside in the sunshine on a Wednesday.”

Carol’s character development can only be seen through the eyes of Katy, which leaves pieces of Carol missing from the reader’s view. This positions Katy as an unreliable narrator at times. She tends to view her mother in a subjective manner, but, here, Katy takes accountability for not always recognizing her mother for who she was and not for who Katy wanted her to be.

“I’m struck by the timelessness of Italy. It is not the first time I’ve had this thought—that the Italy I’m returning to is not all that different from the one my mother first fell in love with thirty years ago.”

Katy does not yet know that she has traveled back in time to 1992; she believes that young Carol is in her own time. Through Positano, Serle is able to manipulate the setting outside of the boundaries of time to create a realistic, contemporary setting that does not obviously give away the novel’s plot twist.

“Food had lost all sensation, all meaning […]. The thing I never told Eric, because I didn’t know how to tell it to anyone, is that I had no interest in doing anything that would sustain life anymore.”

This passage establishes food as a central motif in the novel that relates to Katy’s sense of identity. At this point, it reflects the fact that Katy’s identity is so intertwined with that of her mother that she cannot eat to “sustain [her] life” while her mother also dies.

“I am struck with the overwhelming clarity of how good it feels to exist, to be wanted and…not known.”

Part of Katy’s character development includes developing her own sense of self and establishing her identity independently from those within her life. Her relationship with Adam Westbrooke allows her to explore parts of herself that she has not had an opportunity to explore. Katy can look at herself through Adam’s eyes as she develops an understanding of herself.

“Never trust anyone who hasn’t had their heart broken. It’s a before and after. You never quite see the world the same way again.”

Although Adam jokingly says this to Katy, his words make her realize just how heartbroken she is by her mother’s death. However, despite needing to learn to overcome this, the trip to Positano allows her to overcome this heartbreak. It also serves to provide her with new opportunities to experience life and love in new ways that she otherwise would not have if Carol was still alive. Serle makes Adam define heartbreak through temporal parameters, “before and after,” to emphasize the novel’s fantastical exploration of the past, present, and future.

“I don’t cook; I don’t decorate. I don’t know the right place to order flowers in the Valley, because I always just called her. And now she’s gone, and I can’t help but think, in this moment, that she left me unprepared.”

Part of Katy’s self-discovery journey means letting go of who she thinks she is expected to be. She views Carol as a “perfect” wife—which Serle emphasizes using traditionally gendered activities of cooking and decorating—and she compares herself to her mother rather than viewing herself as an individual.

“There is beauty to the run-down buildings, the laundry strung high overhead, the rhythm and drawl of daily life here. There is beauty, too, in the old Mediterranean architecture, buildings left over from centuries ago, before Naples became what it is today. There is beauty in the discrepancy—two things that seems oppositional, coming together.”

The imagery in Naples both contradicts and mirrors that of Positano. Italy in its entirety represents a timelessness, reflected in the enduring “old Mediterranean architecture,” that allows for emotional development and character growth, while each city comes to represent its own facet of Italian culture. Serle utilizes Naples to illustrate a sense of community and show how cultivating relationships with others is important.

“There is more to life than just continuing to do what we know. What got you here won’t get you there.”

Despite their close bond, Carol continuously pushes Katy to explore life in new ways and reminds her that there is more to life than her routine. Katy starts to have a change in her perspective when she remembers her mother telling her this when they undergo a big life change, such as Chuck retiring from his career. Serle uses the spatial language of journeys (“what got you here won’t get you there”) to reflect the theme of The Discovery of Identity Through Traveling.

“She knew me completely, but it didn’t work both ways; it couldn’t. Look how much life was lived before I ever even arrived. Look at who she was before she met me.”

As Katy continues to change her perspective of Carol, Serle foreshadows just how little Katy truly knows about her mother’s past. Katy feels as though her mother lived an entirely different life before her marriage, yet she does not know that Carol is married to Chuck at this point in their life and that Katy has in fact “arrived,” illustrating a divide within the mother-daughter relationship.

“Actions only have the weight we give them. We can decide what something means.”

During a conversation with young Carol, Katy undergoes another perspective change from the advice given to her by Carol. As they are both on their self-discovery journeys, Carol enforces the idea that their actions are their own choices, and they have the power to decide what those choices mean to them. It creates agency in their own lives. This passage hence reinforces the fact that Carol and Katy have parallel narratives.

“I mean maybe this trip isn’t about him. Maybe it’s not about whether or not you love him or whether or not he’s a good person and a good husband or does or does not deserve this. Maybe this is just about you.”

Rather than being wrapped up in how Katy believes that she should behave, Carol advises her to act for herself. This comment illustrates that not everything is as simple as Katy wants it to be, a point that is a vital part of Katy’s character development because it allows her to have a shift in her thinking about what this trip means for her in the long term.

“She made me in her image, but she forgot the most important part. She forgot that one day she’d leave, that she already had, and then I’d be left with nothing. When you’re just a reflection, what happens when the image vanishes?”

Katy has almost completely dismantled her understanding of Carol, which contributes to how she views herself and the world around her. She questions her identity as it exists outside of her relationship with Carol, and she realizes that she can no longer “belong” to Carol but to herself. Serle frequently uses mirror and reflective imagery throughout the novel to explore Katy’s sense of identity in relation to others and herself.

“I look at Carol now, a crisp white linen dress on, her sandals tied, ready to have the meeting of her dreams—and I don’t see my mother. I see a woman. A woman fresh into a new decade who wants a life of her own. Who has interests and desires and passions beyond my father and me. Who is very real, exactly as she is right here and now.”

Katy views Carol as an individual rather than her mother and Chuck’s wife. She realizes that Carol has a life outside of their home and that she is her own person capable of making her own decisions. Part of Katy’s character development includes learning how to respect the autonomy of the people around her. Through the final assignment of the moment in the “here and now,” Serle resolves Katy’s uncertain sense of her past and her future by writing about young Carol with a certain sense of the present.

“Someone kind…of course. Someone who can let you shine. Someone who is cozy and warm. Someone who will look after you. He’d have brown hair, be a little dorky, but in that handsome way, you know. Clark Kent and all that. Maybe glasses…Someone who thinks he won the lottery, because he did.”

Serle uses dramatic irony to create an atmosphere of magic in Carol’s unwitting description of someone that the reader knows to be Eric. Young Carol’s ability to accurately depict Eric without knowing him illustrates how much Katy loves him, and this allows Katy to utilize her mother’s influence rather than simply accepting what she has to say. Here, Katy can take this knowledge with her and use it to help make her own decision on how to proceed with Eric.

“I realized no one can tell you to go home, because no one can tell me to go home, either. It’s your choice, just like it’s mine.”

Katy’s character development starts to conclude when she acknowledges both her autonomy and Carol’s. Their self-discovery journey ends when they discover their agency and their ability to control their fate.

“‘You know,’ Monica says, ‘when I first saw you, I knew there was something familiar about you […] you really must take after her.’”

Serle ends the novel with the sense that Carol and Katy’s deep bond with each other represents a pure and enduring love. Despite not necessarily needing her influence to make decisions anymore, Katy holds within her Carol’s love, making it transcend time in keeping with the fact that both Katy and young Carol transcend time throughout the novel.

“History is an asset, not a detriment. It’s nice to be with someone who knows you, who knows your history. It will get even more important the longer you live. Learning how to find your way back can be harder than starting over. But, damn, if you can, it’s worth it.”

Eric represents stability and comfort in Katy’s life, and it takes going to Positano to realize how important the past is when making decisions for the future. Chuck says this about his marriage with Carol, but Serle parallels the two couples’ relationships.

“I’d never seen a bond like the two of you shared. But we … It happened fast, Katy. And I think she got lost in the shuffle. It was all too much for her, and she needed some time.”

Through Chuck’s clarification of Carol’s own self-discovery journey, Serle solidifies how much Katy and Carol mirror each other. Although Serle makes this obvious for the reader throughout the text, Katy believes that she and Carol are very much opposites. However, they follow the same path toward developing their identities.

“I never felt like I belonged to Eric. I used to think it was because I belonged to her, but I know, now, that that wasn’t the whole truth. I did not belong to Eric because I do not belong to anyone. Not in that way, not any longer. I am my own, just as she was hers.”

Rather than feeling confined in her relationship with Eric, the decision to actively choose a life with him allows her to feel free in their marriage and not confined. Katy’s sense of belonging to other people develops as she realizes she has only ever truly belonged to herself. This allows her to make the decision to stay with Eric because she knows she has control over her own life. This decision resolves the secondary conflict of the novel relating to Katy and Eric’s marriage.

“History, memory is by definition fiction. Once an event is no longer present, but remembered, it is narrative. And we can choose the narrative we tell—about our own lives, our own stories, our own relationships. We can choose the chapters we give meaning.”

Up until the end of the novel, Katy believes that her past has been defined for her and that she has not had any control over her life. However, she realizes she controls her perception of her past. Serle uses a metafictional device to emphasize this; she draws attention to the fact that the readers are experiencing “fiction” with “chapters” to emphasize the idea that Katy’s character development is a “narrative.”