The Keeper of Happy Endings

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-12

Chapters 13-24

Chapters 25-34

Chapter 35-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Magic and Emotions

Magic is referred to as la magie or magick in the novel; it provides a lens to explore the amount of control that people have (or do not have) over their emotions and destinies. Magic is woven throughout the entirety of the novel and helps to bring characters together and carry them along to their destinies. In the beginning, magic is introduced as a way to create a happy ending for Roussel brides when the dressmakers intentionally perform magic, but soon it plays a role in Rory’s life as well, drawing her to the row house and giving her a feeling that “it wasn’t finished with her yet” (22). It is an instinct that Rory pursues, which demonstrates how these characters are not passive participants in their own lives; the magic only goes so far, like a nudge, and leaves them to do the rest. Soline explains how, “even in fairy tales, the heroine must make her own magic” (77); in a novel in which war, gender and class barriers, and death inhibit characters’ choices, Davis uses magic to explore the extent to which people have control over how they feel and react.

Magic drives the action of the plot, but also gives a mysterious and ethereal tone to the text because unseen forces are constantly at play. It not only inspires movement in the characters but is what connects them relationally and emotionally. The similarities between Rory and Soline—art, lost fiancés, difficult mother relationships, and dreams beyond their family—are obvious to them both and can only be attributed to fate or magic playing a hand. Though Anson initially pushes back against the idea of reconciliation for the family, saying that he hasn’t believed in happy endings in a long time, magic is also at play when he softens and allows himself to be loved.

The idea of life as a fairy tale is prevalent throughout the action of the novel. Though Roussel brides are guaranteed a happy ending, the Roussel family is exempt from the same future and must instead ensure that “their hearts remain locked up tight, closed to temptations that cause [them] to forget [their] true purpose—to ensure the happiness of others” (36). Ultimately, Soline is able to challenge the Roussel family curse by creating her own magic in her wedding gowns, both the one she takes with her from Paris and the one she has made for her wedding to Anson. At the conclusion, Davis suggests that there isn’t a force that can prevent people from staying true to their emotions but that leaning into positive forces can engender positive outcomes and connections.

Grief, Loss, and Restoration

Experiences of grief, loss, and restoration are key components of each character’s development. The impacts of loss are far-reaching in the action of the novel; it is a defining and life-altering event for Soline, Anson, and Rory as they experience grieving a person, a dream, or a life that they expected to have.

Loss of a person has a complex and varied effect on each character. For Anson, losing Soline hardened him to life and left him bitter into older age. He viewed her absence as a betrayal, and his misunderstanding of Soline’s perceived relationship with Manny undermined his masculinity and sense of security. Anson is restored when he is able to put aside his pride and be vulnerable enough to ask for forgiveness. When Soline loses Camilla and Anson, she is left without any family support and alone in a new country; she has to rebuild her life in the face of immense grief. Grief and loss have left Rory paralyzed and unable to move forward with her life at the beginning of the novel.

Both Rory and Soline experience loss of a dream. Rory’s dream of opening the gallery is a causality of losing Hux, but she can move forward with her plan once she accepts that doing so is a way to keep them connected and keep Hux’s memory alive. Soline experiences the death of a dream when her hands are badly injured in the fire; she can no longer create gowns to bring happy endings to others, and while she has been deeply devasted by her own losses through the years, the bridal salon was the one remaining thing in her life that gave it meaning (until she meets Rory). Now that it is taken from her, her life is emptier than before. The scars symbolize the permanence of a sense of loss.

Soline and Rory relate to one another through their shared loss of an expected future, what they each call “the life I thought I would have” (78). Furthermore, as Maman tells Soline, “There is a grief worse than death. It is the grief of a life half-lived” (105). It is not just that Soline loses Anson—for a time she also loses the potential of a happy ending with him in America. Similarly, Rory loses Hux for a time and also loses her sense of future plans to marry him and create a future together outside of her family. Yet the characters of The Keeper of Happy Endings do experience restoration through happy endings, though it comes at a cost: They are all altered and influenced by the losses that shaped them and the years they spent apart. The novel suggests that restoration can follow grief and loss but that the impact of loss is permanent.

Community and Healing

Through community with others, the characters find healing. Community takes on many different forms in the novel, from romantic relationships, friendships, and family to shared experiences of those in the Resistance movement and art world. Anson and Soline’s love and relationship creates a new generation of Purcells—though they only realize their family connection at the end of the novel—and it provides the framework for healing because they have each other to lean on and their shared familial bond. Soline and Manny’s friendship exemplifies how two people who have been cast aside by either society at large or others in their lives can create a supportive and loving relationship that uplifts them both. In the Resistance movements of occupied France, workers came together under a common cause of defying German rule, which gives them an avenue for purpose and agency under the oppression of the Nazis. These examples illustrate how community catalyzes healing under difficult circumstances. For Rory, her emerging identity as an artist whose work is on display in her own gallery connects her to other artists and helps her to find a reason for creating more art. Her connections to Camilla and Soline and newly formed family bonds inspire her to pick up her unfinished and neglected pieces and complete them.

An important component of healing in the novel is breaking generational patterns. Davis explores how familial communities can aid in breaking such patterns. Soline concludes:

I’ve come to believe we create our own curses and carry them through life because we’ve been told it’s our lot. We’re taught to relive our mothers’ heartaches, to accept their sufferings as our own, and pass them on to the next generation […] until one of us at long last says no, and the curse is finally broken (396).

The novel suggests that in order to break free of the “curses” that can exist within families, people must first be honest that such repeated patterns and traumas exist. Healing happens in the novel when people are honest with their family members and secrets are shared, such as when Maman tells Soline about the identity of her father and Camilla tells Rory about her adoption. Relationships that were strained are healed with honest conversations, and when the daughters learn of their mother’s experiences, they have more compassion and understanding for them. It helps to explain the relational strains that kept them at arm’s length previously and end the cycle of familial expectations and pressures.