Still Life

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapter 9

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Chapters 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 3 Summary: “The Stuff of Dreams (1953-1954)”

Cress joins Ulysses on his move to Italy. Cress has not received much love in his life, and in communion with his beloved Cherry Blossom tree, he was convinced to start a new life since Ulysses said he would miss him. Once they’ve made it off the ferry into France, Cress reveals that he’s smuggled the Claude into France with them. Over the eight days it takes for them to cross three countries into Italy, Cress marvels at the world.

Alys sheds light on the mystery that led to Davy’s death. On the journey, she shares glimpses of her artwork in her journal. A picture of Ginny and her boyfriend, Devy Kaur, who also has an intellectual disability. This reveals the truth behind Ginny’s pregnancy. After seeing the sketch, Ulysses mails the picture to Peggy with an update on their travels.

When the group arrives in Florence, a notary named Massimo helps them set up in their new life. The home they’ve inherited from Arturo is massive and beautiful, and Ulysses and Cress are overwhelmed by their new wealth.

The townspeople of the neighborhood remember the legendary story about Ulysses, and the news of his return spreads quickly. Massimo explains to Ulysses that some of the townspeople might be jealous of his palatial house and his refrigerator, which is a luxury. The townspeople are usually wary of outsiders, but Massimo assures Ulysses that eventually, his neighbors will warm up to him. Ulysses frequents a café owned by Michele and run by his wife, Giulia. At this café, Ulysses can get to know the culture and people of the neighborhood. Ulysses receives a letter from his friend Pete, a piano player in Col’s bar, giving him updates about their neighborhood. Nothing much has changed there.

August in Florence is so hot that people’s tempers flare. Ulysses still refers to London as home and is upset that they haven’t heard anything from Peggy yet. Alys notices his loneliness: She tells him that he doesn’t have to make up for Peggy, and that he should get a girlfriend like Giulia. Massimo writes to Ulysses, inviting him on a weekend trip to Giglio. Finally, Ulysses, Cress, and Alys travel to the countryside to join Massimo.

Massimo asks Ulysses what he plans to do with the extra apartment in his house. Cress has been reading E. M. Forster’s novel A Room with a View and recommends turning the apartment into a pensione for English travelers. Massimo teaches them how to cook pasta Italian-style so they can feed themselves and their future renters. They decide to call their place the Pensione Bertolini, named after Arturo.

When they arrive back in Florence, they finally receive letters from Peggy. She gives them her new phone number, and when they call her, she tells Ulysses she’s considering quitting her typist job and marrying Ted. (Ulysses advises against this.) Peggy also reports that she’s told Mrs. Kaur about Ginny and Devy and will tell Col when the right time comes.

Alys starts school. She doesn’t want to go, but school quickly helps her develop structure and builds her knowledge of Italian. She lies to the kids and teachers at school about her mother, telling them that Peggy is dead rather than telling them the truth that Peggy gave her away.

Cress prepares the pensione. He starts socializing more with the neighbors, moving out of his comfort zone, and growing as a person. Ulysses and Alys go to the local train station with a sign, hoping to get their first guest. An older English couple, Des and Poppy Bambridge, book the pensione. During the couple’s stay, Des helps Ulysses come up with a business plan for the pensione; Des has made his fortune creating molds, so he also sends Ulysses molds to restart his father’s globe business.

Pete sends a message from London, informing Ulysses that he will be visiting them for Christmas. Pete arrives, but with unexpected additions of Col and his new girlfriend. As they all reunite, Ulysses hears from Peggy. She’s in Italy with Ted and will visit Florence for Christmas, too. When Peggy arrives, Ted immediately tries to control her behavior and her plans. Claude warns Peggy not to marry Ted.

Peggy joins Ulysses in the cemetery, where they visit Arturo’s grave. In the nearby church, Ulysses shows Alys Pontormo’s Deposition from the Cross, surprised to see it again after so many years. Pete, Alys, and Ulysses light candles by the painting, and Ulysses says a private prayer for Evelyn.

The Christmas visit brings new realizations for everyone. As happy as Ulysses is to have his friends visiting, he notices how quiet Peggy has become and how tense Ted seems. Meanwhile, Alys tests the boundaries of her closeness with Peggy without realizing how badly she needs a maternal smile. Col thinks of his own daughter: He approves of Devy and Mrs. Kaur, but he’s worried about losing Ginny. Cress is reading more and has started exploring poetry. He’s also struck up a friendship with their neighbor Signora Mimmi and reads poetry to her. After Christmas, the guests leave, and Ulysses notes how hard it is for Peggy to hug Alys. A few months later, despite everyone’s warnings, Peggy marries Ted.

New Year’s brings 1953. Alys makes friends at school and continues a monthly correspondence with Peggy, who sends her a picture of Eddie that Alys keeps secret from Ulysses to avoid hurting his feelings. Ulysses continues to learn Italian and builds his first globe. Though he does not mention it, he still wonders about Evelyn.

Chapter 4 Summary: “The Most Unlikely-Looking Pair (1954-1959)”

In 1954, Evelyn is alive and well, teaching part-time at a Fine Arts school back in England. One afternoon, she strolls with her student Jem, and they run into the famous abstract artist Dorothy “Dotty” Cunningham, a friend of Evelyn’s. Afterward, Evelyn and Dotty go swimming in the cold pond. For Evelyn, the connection between mind, body, and cold water is sublime. Evelyn sees cold-pond swimming as an intimate activity to share with the women who are important to her. She and Dotty have been friends for many years; Dotty even painted her portrait in 1924. Evelyn and Dotty are ready for a new adventure, and Evelyn recommends that they go to Florence.

On their journey to Italy, they have a layover in a train station in France where, much to Evelyn’s chagrin, they run into Margaret. Evelyn hasn’t spoken to Margaret since 1944 when they were in Florence. Thinking quickly, Dotty helps Evelyn evade a conversation with Margaret. Once on the train again, Evelyn thinks back to her past with Margaret, whom she had dated to get over the death of her lover of 10 years, Gabriela. She met Gabriela through her father, who was a painter and was inspired by Gabriela. Gabriela died in the war against Franco, and Evelyn sees her as her last great love.

When they arrive in Florence, they walk in the city and, unbeknownst to Evelyn, Ulysses is walking through the same area. Dotty makes sketches and paintings, and she and Evelyn visit different famous works of art. Dotty notes that she was both disturbed and aroused by Giambologna’s statue Rape of the Sabine Woman. Evelyn explains that Giambologna was aware of this paradox in his art, and that he had done it on purpose to represent “the artistic freedom of the Renaissance. The freedom to think and feel outside of the Church” (220). The next day, Evelyn again misses running into Ulysses. Evelyn relishes the beauty of Italy; it makes her think deeply about her past loves, friendships, and family members.

Evelyn tells Dotty about her time working with Allied forces to reclaim priceless artworks during World War II. She recalls Ulysses and speaks fondly about his kindness to her. She often thinks of him, so Dotty encourages her to track him down, but Evelyn believes he must have forgotten about her.

Before they depart for Rome, Evelyn goes to the church that houses The Deposition from the Cross. There, she meets Alys, who invites her to go into the church and see the painting. Evelyn sees that Alys has a little painting that Dotty made for her while Dotty was searching the streets of Florence for inspiration. She advises Alys to keep that painting safe because it’s very valuable. As they look at the art, Evelyn teaches Alys about the history of women in art in the area, most of whom were artists in secret, living in convents.

Alys shows Ulysses and Cress her painting, and Ulysses is impressed because he recognizes Dotty’s famous signature. She tells them about meeting a woman named Evelyn at the church. Shocked, Ulysses runs to the train station to find Evelyn. He misses the train just as it leaves the station, but Dotty sees. She tells Evelyn that she saw a man running after the train, but Evelyn did not see him.

Almost a year later, in 1955, Evelyn plans another trip to Florence but falls sick and must cancel. In 1956, Evelyn returns to Florence without Dotty. She eats at Michele’s café, Ulysses’s favorite neighborhood spot, but again they fail to cross paths. In 1958, they walk the same bridge in Florence without seeing each other: Evelyn is too absorbed in art and Ulysses is distracted by a serious conversation with Massimo, who is telling him about his new boyfriend. For years, Evelyn and Ulysses are in close proximity but never run into each other.

Evelyn studies still life paintings and thinks about the way these paintings tell the story of the reliability of daily life. As she writes about still life paintings, she thinks about Alys and wonders how old she is now.

Chapters 3-4 Analysis

While Chapters 1 and 2 establish the story’s major elements, Chapter 3 jumpstarts character and plot development. Winman relocates the story’s main setting from London to Florence, enabling the characters to experience new sides of themselves. By distancing themselves from their familiar settings, the characters free themselves from past obstacles to growth; they begin new relationships and ventures and continue to appreciate art.

Certain things, however, remain the same. For example, neighborhood culture has the same strict, unspoken codes in London as it does in Florence. In London, Ulysses and Cress were a core part of the neighborhood. When they move to Florence, their new neighborhood presents them with the challenge of being outsiders. Ulysses and Cress must be flexible in learning their new neighborhood’s boundaries, culture, and identity. The more they can be open to this new identity, the more readily the Italians will accept them. This is a fundamental expatriate experience, which is rich with possibilities and uncertainties.

Claude continues to be a symbol in this section. To Cress, he represents a piece of home. He also serves as a harbinger of the downfall of Peggy’s marriage when he tells her not to marry Ted. Having this important message come from a bird might seem humorous, but it echoes Ulysses’s advice, which Peggy does not take.

In Chapter 3, Cress undergoes significant character development. Cress has always wondered about the wider world, and now, against all odds, he’s exploring that world. In Florence, Cress opens himself up to love because he is finally able to see himself as worthy of love. Once in Italy, Claude comes out of his shell and tries new things. He starts reading novels and poetry, which he had never done before because he preferred facts. His immersion into literature helps him see the world in a new, more romantic light. It helps him connect with his feelings, and thereby connect with others. Cress has never dated before, and his new-found confidence in dating stems from his elevated sense of self-worth. Had Cress stayed behind in London, he would have continued on the same path of loneliness, but in Florence, Cress embraces his second chance at life.

Cress’s new literary interests show an important connection between Still Life and A Room with a View. Published in 1908, A Room with a View begins in Florence and is about the shifting dynamics in Victorian English culture at the turn of the century. In Forster’s Italy, anything can happen, which poses Italy as an exciting and adventurous juxtaposition to the stiff rules of Victorian England. The allusion to A Room with a View is made through Cress’s reading of the novel and his insistence that the first-floor apartment would be perfect as a pensione in part because it has a room with a view. Like many of the characters, such as Massimo and Evelyn, Forster had gay relationships. However, he was not able to express his true self in public. Though the 1940s and 1950s were not a particularly inclusive time for LGBTQ+ individuals, in Still Life, the characters are able to express themselves in a way that Forster could not.

Unlike the other characters, Peggy stays in London even though she is unhappy there. Her inability to move forward—and the detrimental decisions she makes as a result—contrast with the growth taking place for the characters who are in Florence. Peggy is stuck in the past; she cannot let go of her dream of moving to America with Eddie. She had a difficult time during and after the war and has lost the ability to make positive changes for herself. In this section, Peggy is a tragic figure because she seems to be moving backward just as everyone else is moving forward.

Alys also experiences character development. She knows that she’s been rejected by her mother and is finding ways to form other bonds to make up for that longing. She senses Ulysses’s loneliness and anxiety but can do little about it, as she is working through the changes in her own life. Having become an expatriate at a young age, Alys does not have the same cultural attachment that the older characters do to London; therefore, she has an easier time transitioning to life in Italy.

Ulysses is happy in Italy, but he bears the responsibility of a household, and the loneliness of being an expatriate whose former life has been destroyed by the war. Florence presents a new challenge for him, but his life has financially and emotionally grown for the better. He often wonders about Evelyn, and their near misses emphasize the motifs of fate, chance, and the power of connections in the novel.

Chapter 4 is characterized by the use of dramatic irony. Ulysses and Evelyn are in the same neighborhood at the same time on several occasions throughout the 1950s. They both think of each other often but keep missing each other, not realizing that the other is also in Florence. The artwork unites them and allows Evelyn to meet Alys. Through Winman’s use of dramatic irony, the reader is privy to these near misses, and they foreshadow the pair’s eventual reunion. The use of dramatic irony here also emphasizes how art connects people across time and space.