46 pages • 1 hour read
Kathleen RooneyLillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A 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 20-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 20 Summary: “The Golden State”
Lillian stops at a bodega to get a hostess gift for Wendy, picking out potato chips and mazapan. Lillian knows that what she is buying will charm Wendy but does not know what kind of flowers to bring. She asks the clerk, CJ, what he would want someone to bring him, and he gets what appears to be a pot full of dirt; it holds an amaryllis bulb. He says that while the cut flowers will die in a week, this plant will be beautiful through the middle of winter. The two converse, and CJ explains that he’s working in the store to give his parents the night off, that they’ve been working ever since coming to New York from the Philippines 20 years ago, and that he worries about them staying open all night since the neighborhood is getting bad and wants to move away. Lillian is moved; when she takes out her wallet to pay and realizes that she still has nearly $100, she gives it all to CJ as a New Year’s gift.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Solvitur Ambulando”
Lillian digresses into a story about the time that she was invited onto a public access program called Where They’ve Been and Where They’re Going, and the narrative flashes to 1980. The show’s producer, Mindy, catches her at a vulnerable moment when she misses her old life, so she agrees to go on the program. The two other guests are much younger, with long-term and recent successes. The host asks the women what advice they have for young girls who want to get into advertising. Lillian answers thoughtfully, but the younger women suggest that she has no idea how people are convinced to make purchases. While they condescend to call Lillian’s writing clever, they suggest that friendly persuasion is not as effective as appealing to emotions or animal instincts. Disgusted with what she calls their lack of professional responsibility and their desire to take the human race backward, Lillian leaves.
Walking in the spring air, she begins to feel better. She thinks about the time that she planted a tree at their vacation home in Maine with Max and Johnny and about how much larger both the elm and her son have gotten. Saddened by the passage of time, she decides to stop at an automat for lunch, where the “coin-fed mediocrity” feels aligned with the day’s events. Lillian continues to brood, recalling Helen’s death the year before and wondering whether she or this last automat in New York will vanish first. She recalls the last card that Gian sent her for her birthday and is somewhat cheered by the love they share.
Chapter 22 Summary: “As Good a Day to Die as Any”
Lillian sees a door propped open with a bucket of balloons and knows that she has reached Wendy’s party; Lillian realizes that the building they live in is the old National Biscuit Factory—inventor of her nemesis this evening, Oreos. She follows the sound of music to the party, a modern thumping sound that she enjoys. In the apartment she is confronted by Jason, a guest who calls her Nancy Reagan and demands to know who invited her. He calls himself a “scary homosexual” and suggests that she must be afraid of him because she thinks he has AIDS ; Lillian is dismayed by his assumptions and his angry demeanor. She responds that “[t]oday is as good a day to die as any” (248).
Wendy introduces Lillian to Peter, and they reveal that they are not married and he is not her “boyfriend,” but they often say that they are married because people don’t understand why they live together. Peter says that what makes Lillian great is her ability to notice things and people without judging them. Lillian says that it is time to go home. Both warn her to stay away from Penn Station.
Chapter 23 Summary: “The Best Technique”
The narrative goes back to New Year’s Day 1955, when Lillian and Max are embarking on a cruise to Italy, which is supposed to help cheer her up and fix their marriage. This trip is exactly the opposite of their honeymoon, as Lillian is deeply depressed and cannot see beauty in anything. She keeps a travel diary filled with despair about hating the things she loves and criticisms of people who are happy. Max attempts to befriend another couple, Vivian and Herb, who annoy Lillian with their relentless positivity. During cocktails with the couple, Lillian excuses herself to go to the bathroom. There, she uses a razor blade that she has been hiding to cut her wrist. Vivian finds her on the bathroom floor covered in blood. They return to New York; Helen visits Lillian at St. Vincent’s and asks why she never asked for help, but Lillian insists that she didn’t want charity from anyone and apologizes for what she did.
Chapter 24 Summary: “A Secret”
Drunk from the pink punch at Wendy’s party, Lillian makes her way toward home. She has always promised Gian that she would not resist a mugging, but that proves false when she is confronted by three teenage boys demanding five dollars. Lillian notes that this is the same amount the muggers asked the Subway Vigilante for just before he shot them, and she warns that they don’t know what people can do. They suggest that everyone approves of what the Subway Vigilante did, but Lillian says that it was disgusting. Two of the boys persist in asking her for money, while the third one insists that they’re not here to bother old ladies. Lillian explains that she gave all her money away, and the tall boy, Keith, says that she can give them her coat instead. Lillian points out that she is old and it is cold out, so she will trade her coat for one of theirs. After more negotiations, Lillian and Keith swap their coats as midnight strikes.
The boys are still nervous that Lillian will get them in trouble, so she writes out a bill of sale. One of the boys politely gathers the things that have been scattered out of her purse. As they’re about to leave, Lillian asks them to identify the rap song that she has been hearing, and they incredulously recognize the lyrics of “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang. Before he leaves, Keith tells her that she doesn’t understand anything and she’s lucky that things worked out the way they did. As she walks away, she puts her hand in the pocket of Keith’s jacket and finds a slip of paper from a fortune cookie: “You think it is a secret but it has never been one” (278).
After checking her reflection in her new jacket in the window glass of RH Macy’s, Lillian continues her walk home. Skip, the limo driver whom she met at the beginning of the night, appears once more and offers her a ride, but she is already on her own street. Back in her apartment, she feeds her cat Phoebe, vowing to stay interested in life and welcome the future as it comes.
Chapters 20-24 Analysis
Lillian’s description of her depression and her final experiences of 1984 blend realism with absurdity as she confronts the notion of mortality in several ways. As she prepares to arrive at Wendy’s party, the symbolism of New Year’s Eve as a time of renewal intensifies her sense that she is old. This is represented most strongly by CJ’s desire to go somewhere else and start over, and his recommendation of the amaryllis rather than cut flowers which will die in a week’s time. The recollection of her appearance on Where They’ve Been and Where They’re Going and her lunch at the last remaining automat in the city emphasize her place in the category of “where they’ve been.” She reflects on Helen’s death and her appreciation for Gian’s presence in her life. Now that Gian is grown, he is the one sending her cards and offering care.
Lillian’s arrival at Wendy’s party furthers her sense of herself as old and apart from the current generation. However, it also conveys the distinctions between her values and the values espoused by others of her own generation. Her acceptance of Wendy and Peter’s relationship demonstrates this; as does her response to Jason’s assumptions about her and her willingness to address what he assumes about her. Her glib response about imminent death shows her refusal to follow the widespread fears of AIDS but also shows her willingness to confront these issues head-on.
In both flashback and present tense, these chapters provide the novel’s climax. Lillian demonstrates a similar willingness to confront things with honesty and courage when describing her suicide attempt, when she acknowledges that she has never told anyone about her memory of the event before, saying “I lied to Max, Gian, Helen, every doctor I’ve ever had. Myself most of all. The truth is, I do remember” (261). Rooney withholds this description until the end, suggesting that recovery is more significant when defining someone’s character than their moment of crisis.
Lillian’s final confrontation with the three young men outside Penn Station conveys a sense of inevitability; at the beginning of the novel, Lillian remarks that she does not have a mugging story of her own. As with the Oreos and advertising, her relationship with the city and with her mink coat comes full circle in this interaction. Significantly, she sheds her coat at midnight and steps into the new skin of Keith’s jacket. The fortune in his pocket, “[y]ou think it is a secret but it has never been one” (278), reinforces a sense of coming to terms with who she is and has been. Rooney employs absurdity to keep the encounter from veering into melodrama when Lillian agrees to write out a bill of sale for her coat, conveying the sense that only Lillian Boxfish could turn a mugging into a transaction—and further, into an opportunity to learn more about the rap song she has been hearing. While the ending does acknowledge the realism of the city’s problems, it also conveys a sense of hope and infinite possibility through Lillian’s relentless interest in those around her.
