51 pages • 1 hour read
Marjan KamaliThe Stationery Shop of Tehran
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A 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 4, Chapters 21-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4, Chapter 21 Summary: “1958: Births”
The chapter contains another letter from Bahman to Roya. Shahla has had twins, and he is feeling overwhelmed with love and exhaustion in equal measure. Recalling his mother’s harsh treatment of Roya, he discloses that he was his parents’ fifth pregnancy, his mother having lost two children to stillbirth, one to miscarriage and another in the first year of life. He attributes his mother’s subsequent mental health conditions to these losses.
Part 4, Chapter 22 Summary: “1962-3: Marigold”
Roya sends a brief letter of congratulations to Zari and Jack when she learns they are expecting their first child. She learns of the birth of Bahman’s twins when she makes her annual phone-call to Jahangir. Disappointed in her hopes of a career in science, she is working as a secretary at Harvard Business School.
When Roya and Walter’s baby, Marigold, arrives, she feels “real” again for the first time since the end of her relationship with Bahman. After a year of life, Marigold dies of croup. Roya is devastated and Walter tends to her. Zari comes to help with her two children, four-year-old Darius and two-year-old Leila. Seeing Leila makes Roya think of Marigold and the future that she might have had. Zari has convinced Jack to abandon poetry, and he is now a successful advertising executive. Zari deep-cleans Roya’s house and packs up Marigold’s nursery.
Persian New Year comes again with the spring, but Roya feels unable to celebrate either. Patricia arrives with a collection of traditional items for the Persian New Year and says that she is “so very sorry” (222). Roya is unsure whether this is an expression of condolence for her daughter’s death or a more general apology, but she is profoundly moved. Patricia gives Roya a bag of saffron and they drink tea together.
Walter sits up late each night, drinking in the rocking chair where Roya had nursed Marigold. Roya and Walter go out for dinner for their anniversary and Walter suggests they try for another child. Roya refuses and expects Walter to leave her, but instead he kneels next to her and presses his forehead to hers. On the first anniversary of her daughter’s death, Roya dumps the rocking chair out on the curb.
Part 4, Chapters 21-22 Analysis
Part 4 sees the realization of Mrs. Aslan’s grim warning. When she finally becomes a mother, Roya gives herself over to the unconditional love of her baby, only to lose her child after just a year. Again, a new hope and life is abruptly nipped in the bud. Roya initially falls into a deep depression but feminine solidarity and community, from her sister and her formerly hostile sister in-law, help her to find a way out of her despair. The celebration of the Persian New Year and the coming of spring is once again a potent symbol (See: Symbols & Motifs). When Roya accepts Patricia’s gifts, she agrees to start again and find a way forward for her family, despite their terrible loss. In banishing the rocking chair from the house, Roya signals her determination to move forward.
Adult life is characterized by compromises and disappointments for most of the characters in the novel. Roya has abandoned any hope of a scientific career for a job in the university, and Jack has given up his literary aspirations for a career in advertising. The Experience of Love and Marriage continues to have its ups and downs for Roya as well. The loss of her daughter and her husband’s eagerness to try again for another baby cause tensions between them, although her husband’s unflagging love and support allow them to weather the crisis together. Bahman, meanwhile, is happy with his twin children, but the fact that he is still writing letters to Roya reflects his continuing sense of regret over the loss of their relationship.
With Roya, Zari, and Bahman all becoming parents, a generational shift is taking place. If intergenerational trauma played a significant role in sabotaging the relationship between Roya and Bahman, the question emerges as to what kind of legacy these new parents will leave to their children.
