This Strange Eventful History

François and Barbara are staying in Denise’s flat. She owns it (though François purchased it for her) but lives with her father. Barbara finds Denise’s crucifix “creepy,” and François is reminded of how much his wife has always disliked France and French culture. He reflects on their marriage. The years he worked in New York and then commuted home to Connecticut were particularly difficult. Spending weeks alone in the city only to return home to a house full of people who obviously resented his presence was dispiriting. He always worked so hard to ensure their comfort, and not only did they not appreciate his efforts, but they failed to consider how much his career cost him. He was never happy in business and always felt that he belonged in a more scholarly field. He and Barbara were always so different. He wondered if, in marrying her, he hoped to become a different person himself. If so, he failed. He has never been able to become who Barbara wanted him to be. However, now that he has spent his entire life with Barbara, it seems that their time together does amount to something: They’ve managed to remain a family. That matters to him.

Gaston died, and his body was laid on his own bed, surrounded by flowers for days. Chloe knows that her mother finds this custom particularly foreign and is repulsed by it. The family remains for a few days after his death, but once the funeral is over, they mostly disperse. Denise is having a small medical procedure done and requests that Chloe stay to keep her company. Chloe agrees but privately protests to her mother. She’s shocked that Barbara rebukes her, knowing that her mother has always disliked Denise. She’s struck by how confusing the intergenerational differences are in the family but apologizes to her mother and says no more on the subject. Denise goes to the hospital for her procedure, which goes well. While she’s there, Chloe finds one of her old journals and reads about her love for Jacques. She’s surprised to find out that her aunt spent so much of her life pining for a man who didn’t return her feelings and wonders why she would leave her journal among the apartment’s books and novels for someone to find. She wonders about the future of the family now that Gaston is gone. His apartment in Toulon was, Chloe felt, the family’s true home. She muses about whether they still have a space to gather or even any family cohesion now that their patriarch is no longer living.

François and Barbara are now elderly. Barbara has neurological issues, and François has had cancerous skin lesions. He no longer drinks alcohol. Chloe and Oliver sometimes visit with their children but typically stay at a nearby hotel. Their parents’ apartment is small, and the children enjoy the hotel’s swimming pool. Barbara’s neurological issues cause her to hear voices, see figures who may not be there, and experience confusion. One night when (she thinks) François is away on business, a strange man collapses in her bathroom and begins yelling. She’s terrified at the thought of a stranger in her home and hums loudly to drown out the noise. At dawn, the doorbell rings. Her neighbor heard a loud noise and wants to make sure everyone’s okay. She finds François collapsed in the bathroom, explains to Barbara who he is, and dials 911. At the hospital, they learn that François had a stroke, and the esophageal cancer has returned. He can’t return home. He continues to decline physically, and Barbara continues to decline mentally. François is in severe pain, which painkillers only partially mitigate. In his more lucid moments, he realizes that for both of them death is imminent.

Denise travels to see François on his deathbed but returns to her home in Toulon while he’s still alive. It’s a difficult journey, and she doesn’t get along well with the family during her visit. Denise makes sure that François agrees to receive the last rites and feels as though she has done something for him at least. She feels that he was much more supportive toward her during their lives than she was of him, but she hopes he realizes that he was the stronger of the pair. He could not, she thinks, expect her to match him in strength or stamina. Back in Toulon, she strikes up a friendship with Magi, a Moroccan woman who works as a cleaner nearby. She knows that her neighbors find their camaraderie strange but feels more relaxed around Magi than any of the Frenchmen and women in her neighborhood. She tells Magi of the difficulties of her trip to see her brother one last time: No one in the family would let her smoke! They had no respect for her as an elder. She doesn’t know what she’ll do once François is gone. Her parents are no longer living. She always relied so much on her brother. Her family feels as though it has disintegrated.

Chloe’s daughter Audie turns nine. François dies, but Barbara doesn’t seem to comprehend the news. Chloe reflects on her father’s life and death. She finds Denise’s request that François receive the last rites understandable because of Denise’s devout faith but odd because François found Catholicism stifling and made an effort to leave religion out of his own family’s life. Still, she mused, toward the end of his life he did admit to having felt, at many times, the presence of God around him. Chloe is grateful that his last nurse was Haitian. She was also named Françoise, and they spoke in French and talked about France. At the end, although he died alone in the room per his wish, he had a companion who understood something of what it was to exist between two cultures. When given the opportunity to say goodbye to her husband’s body, Barbara becomes visibly upset. Chloe still isn’t sure if her mother understands that François is gone.

Young Lucienne and Gaston begin courting. Many frown upon their union because Lucienne, 10 years older than Gaston, is his aunt. They’ll bury this family secret because they feel that their love has been preordained by God. They fall in love in Tlemcen, a city in a country that isn’t and will never be theirs, despite their family having lived there for more than 100 years.