52 pages • 1 hour read
Laura DaveThe Night We Lost Him
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 8-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary: “There’s One Way Into Hope, One Way Back Out”
Sam is too agitated, so Nora drives. He has found out that their father drew up plans to sell Noone Properties to Cece a few months back. Both Sam and Nora know that their father has some kind of history with Cece: The two apparently grew up together and might have dated. However, that Liam had planned to sell his company to her is news to Sam. Because his role in Noone Properties was so important, he is furious that he was not let in on the possible sale. The two drive to Joe’s expansive property to ask what he knows. Joe is less than forthcoming with information. He explains that he and Liam had considered the sale and even drawn up papers, but Liam decided against it. He claims that it has nothing to do with Liam’s history with Cece and declines to offer any further insight into Liam’s state of mind during the sale or in the months leading up to his death. He curtly invites Sam and Nora to his daughter’s upcoming engagement party. They can see that the conversation is over.
Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary: “Fifty Years Ago”
The narrative turns back to Liam’s young adulthood. Cory and Liam are together, but Liam is about to leave for his first year at Yale, while Cory is still in high school. Liam desperately wants to continue dating long distance, but Cory insists that they must break up: She knows how badly he wants to escape his life and does not want to become something holding him back. Liam is crushed, but Cory remains resolute. The two part ways.
Part 1, Chapter 10 Summary: “Three Lies and the Truth”
In the present, Nora and Sam agree that Joe was cagey, both about their father and about Cece. Sam wants to talk to Cece and arranges for a meeting.
Part 1, Chapter 11 Summary: “Los Alamos, Nowhere Near New Mexico”
Sam and Nora are to meet Cece at her home, a compound outside of Los Alamos. The region’s economy is dedicated to wine, but it’s less built up than Napa. Nora visited Los Alamos with Jack the year before and has happy memories of the spot’s natural beauty. Cece cancels their meeting at the last minute. Her assistant claims that she is at an important dinner in town and does not have time for Sam and Nora. Because Nora remembers how small the town is, she suggests that they find Cece and interrupt her dinner. Nora thinks that there are only three or four restaurants and that it should be easy to locate her.
They find Cece easily and surprise her at her table. They sit down and pepper her with questions about her father, Joe, and the sale. Cece tells them that the three went to high school together and remained close. Her children had grown up with Joe’s, and she’d been in touch with Liam until the end of his life. She is also unforthcoming with details about why the sale hadn’t gone through. She is aghast when they explain that they are also investigating Liam’s death and admits that he tried to call her twice on the night he died.
Part 1, Chapter 12 Summary: “Forty-Eight Years Ago”
Two years have gone by since Liam left for college. He returns to Brooklyn for the holidays and runs into Cory. He misses her terribly, but she seems unphased. He invites her to his parents’ holiday party, and she declines. Heartbroken, he turns to go, but she stops him. She tells him that she doesn’t want to go to his parents’ party but that she will go anywhere else with him.
Part 1, Chapter 13 Summary: “Old Friends Are the Best Friends”
In the present timeline, Sam and Nora agree that Cece was evasive in their conversation, but Sam is more mistrustful of her in general than Nora is. They wonder about the exact nature of her relationship with their father but do not know how to find out more information about Cece and Liam’s history. They also wonder if their father might have jumped from the cliff, but both Nora and Sam decide that suicide would have been an unlikely choice for Liam.
Part 1, Chapter 14 Summary: “Late Night Special at the Holiday Inn”
It is too late to head back to New York, so Sam and Nora stay at The Ranch, Noone Properties’ flagship luxury resort. Sam and Nora take one of the available bungalows and talk while eating room service. Sam shares that he and his fiancé have been together for only nine months and that before Morgan, he’d been dating someone quite seriously for years. The break had not been smooth, and he’s still dealing with the fallout.
He notices Elliot call Nora twice, but Nora assures him defensively that she is happy with Jack. After Sam falls asleep, Nora wanders the property and talks to one of the night-shift workers, who recounts how upstanding and honest Liam was. As they are talking, it occurs to Nora that Liam’s phone was never recovered. She calls Sam to share this revelation, and he agrees that it is suspicious. They also agree that no one seems to be telling them the full story. Nora wonders idly if their father was compelled for some reason to sell the company. They vow to try to dig deeper for more information.
Part 1, Chapters 8-14 Analysis
This set of chapters introduces several new characters, including Joe. Joe is Liam’s cousin, closest friend, and business partner. Like Liam, Joe is career minded and driven. He has also given much of his life to Noone Properties, and like many of the other characters in this novel, he is introduced through the framework of work and career. Joe is also part of the novel’s engagement with the importance of platonic friendship, particularly to individuals who struggle in romantic relationships and have few other opportunities for emotional connectivity in their lives. Joe and Liam have a lifelong friendship outside of their roles as business partners, and the author notes on more than one occasion that fierce loyalty to their friends is a key part of each man’s personality.
Joe also contributes to the exploration of The Impact of Secrets, as Sam and Nora’s early discovery about Liam’s secrets involves Joe. When they learn that Liam nearly sold Noone Properties without telling Sam, Sam is furious. Because he worked so closely with his father, he feels betrayed. When they ask Joe for more details about the near sale, he is unwilling to provide them with any real information, and both Sam and Nora feel that he is hiding something. This novel’s depiction of secrets is complex: They both bind Joe and Liam to each other and separate the men from those around them. Secrets come between Joe and Liam and Liam’s children, creating even more distance between Sam, Nora, and their father.
This section of the novel also contains key flashbacks that help to explain Liam’s past. The author introduces Cory, Liam’s high school girlfriend. She wounds Liam deeply when she ends their relationship just as he is about to leave for college, and although career is a key aspect of Liam’s characterization, so is his love for Cory. As the years pass, she steadfastly refuses to rekindle their relationship, but Liam never gives up hope or severs his connection to her. These details add depth and complexity to the author’s depiction of Liam, and it begins to be apparent that the sense of loss he feels about Cory shapes his choices as much as his work ethic does.
The author continues to explore Fraught Family Relationships in this set of chapters, primarily through her depictions of Sam and Nora. The two appear to be reconnecting through their shared investigation into Liam’s death, and their burgeoning relationship speaks to the idea that fractured familial bonds can be repaired. However, much of their conversation focuses on their love lives, and it is evident that the two struggle to connect romantically much in the way that their father did. Sam is also an emotionally distant partner who compartmentalizes, and Nora learns that these behaviors cost him a relationship with a woman whom he still loves. Although Nora loves her partner and recognizes what a wonderful man he is, she is engaging in a quasi-emotional affair with her own ex-partner. Each sibling has suffered as a result of their father’s aloofness, yet each reproduces his behavior in their own relationships.
Cece Salinger is also introduced in this set of chapters. Like Liam and Joe, she is career oriented and driven. She derives her identity largely through work, and in that regard, she is similar to most of the characters in The Night We Lost Him. Cece is also characterized by her willingness to keep secrets. As a longstanding friend of Joe and Liam, she is privy to much of the information that the two men kept secret from Sam and Nora. While this brought her closer to Joe and Liam, it created distance with Sam and Nora. It is evident that Cece would like to help Sam and Nora and that she has a tremendous amount of respect for Nora as an architect, but she is bound by loyalty to not reveal what she knows.
Architecture and real estate continue to be an important motif in this section, and the author shares more details about Noone Properties and the way that the company shapes Liam and its other employees. Liam has big-picture dreams for his empire, and through hard work and business acumen, he can realize them. Nora reflects on this while she and Sam are staying at one of his properties, observing,
After my father rebranded Hayes as Noone Properties and resorts, he opened The Ranch. It was his first property and the way he announced the shift in the company’s mission. They were no longer a small, regional hotel chain. The west coast hotel, which was his flagship property, stood as the model for what he wanted all his hotels to deliver: luxury comfort and seminal design (106).
Liam, Joe, and the rest of the leadership team at Noone work tirelessly to build their brand, and that work further cements their friendships. It also keeps them away from their families, and Nora realizes that much of Liam’s career success came at the cost of his familial relationships.
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By Laura Dave
