Three Women

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-11

Chapters 12-14

Chapter 15-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 12-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 12 Summary: “Sloane”

Sloane is liberated and excited by the Fifty Shades trilogy, as it normalizes and celebrates sexual fetishization. The books allow Sloane to redefine her and Richard’s sexual practices as that of a dominant/submissive; herself as the submissive who fulfills her own sexual desires by fulfilling Richard’s.

While Sloane is on holiday with some girlfriends, she bumps into a couple she knows. They drink and flirt. Sloane calls Richard and tells him about the encounter, and he encourages her to pursue a sexual encounter with them. She goes to their room the next morning. They order champagne and have sex. Sloane is distressed when the phone dies midway through, as she cannot keep Richard updated and involved. She calls him afterwards from her room, and he is upset.

Back on Rhode Island, Sloane and Richard begin a regular sexual arrangement with Wes, an attractive chef who works at their restaurant. Sometimes all three of them have sex, and sometimes just Sloane and Wes sleep together, keeping Richard involved through messages, calls, or video. Sloane and Richard initially assume that Wes and his partner Jenny have an open relationship, and that Jenny knows about Wes’s arrangement with Sloane and Richard. However, when Sloane suggests to Wes that he should include Jenny in a sexual encounter, his awkward reply implies that Jenny does not know.

One day, Sloane receives a message from Jenny, who found out about Wes’s affair. Jenny is devastated and angry. Sloane feels that the rumors which begin circulating do not capture the complexity of the situation. Sloane wishes Richard would go to talk to Jenny to explain the situation more fully. Sloane feels dirty and despised, but she also misses Wes’s presence in their relationship.

Chapter 13 Summary: “Lina”

Lina is at home with her kids, organizing their dinner and going through the motions of a weekday night. The domestic calm is disrupted when she receives a text from Aidan saying, “what u into,” which Lina knows to mean: “I will fuck you right now if you can get near to where I am within the allotted time” (226). Lina finds someone at late notice to babysit her kids, pays an expensive rate for the sitter, orders pizza for the kids, and swaps cars with Ed at Ed’s worksite. The river where they usually meet is busy, and Aidan tells Lina to check into a room at the Best Western. Lina, frustrated, cannot pay for a room at the Best Western in cash, and she knows that she should not use Ed’s credit card. To her immense relief, Aidan agrees to stay at the river. Lina arrives, and they have sex on the floor of her car and talk for a while.

Lina begs him to stay longer. They kiss for a few minutes more, and then Aidan leaves. The entire encounter lasts around 30 minutes. Later, Lina texts Aidan to thank him for spending so much time with her.

Chapter 14 Summary: “Maggie”

Knodel’s lawyer, Hoy, questions Knodel about his life, his education, and his career and eventually begins asking him questions about Maggie. Knodel tells the court that he wanted Maggie to feel more connected at school and that he continued reaching out to her out of concern for her wellbeing. Knodel explains that Maggie had a lot of problems at home and needed Knodel’s help and advice. Hoy asks Knodel whether he and Maggie ever had sexual encounters, whether Maggie was ever inside his home, whether they exchanged letters, and whether he put sticky notes throughout her copy of Twilight. Knodel responds in the negative to each and asserts that the diagram Maggie drew of the inside of his old house(to prove that she had been there was not accurate. The defense also suggested that she could have found out about the floorplan of the home online when the house was for sale.

Marie Knodel testifies that she has never been out of town for the weekend for work. She says that she skipped an annual getaway with girlfriends the year that Maggie claimed she was away. She says that she knew that Knodel was messaging and calling a student. Byers asks whether she knew there were “twenty three calls as late as after ten at night,” to which Marie responds “no” (246). Marie explained that Maggie had her number because Knodel’s phone was on low battery at one point, and he told her to call his wife’s number if they got cut off, not because Knodel had asked Maggie to program it into her phone under “do not answer” (244). Byers (Maggie’s lawyer) suggests that Marie saved her testimony for court so that she had an opportunity to hear and refute Maggie’s claims.

Marie further asserts that she does not think that the handwriting from the Post-It notes in the Twilight books looks like her husband’s writing, and she denies that any of the phrases are typical of him. Byers closes by emphasizing the thousands of minutes the two spent on the phone. He points out that being a troubled teenager “who nobody would believe” made Maggie the perfect victim (248). Hoy, on the other hand, says in closing that Maggie’s memories have become what she “wanted them to be” and not “what it was” (249).

Chapters 12-14 Analysis

Sloane

Reading the Fifty Shades trilogy was liberating to Sloane because sexual experimentation was normalized in the public mindset. Instead of questioning her and Richard’s sexual experimentation (“who was she? What had she become?”) the books give Sloane a “new lens” through which to see their sex life (213). This new lens allows Sloane to perceive their sexual experimentation as something that they both want. Instead of merely accommodating her husband’s desires “without being true to her own” she now feels like a sexual submissive conscientiously and enthusiastically acquiescing to the demands of her dominant: Richard, thereby fulfilling her own sexual needs (213). There is only a small voice inside her which suggests: “Is this a way for you to be okay with your husband wanting you to sleep with other men?” (212). Taddeo alludes to the fact that, despite what she may tell herself and her girlfriends, Sloane is still motivated by pleasing Richard, and she still feels some compunction over their unconventional arrangement.

Sloane feels that the affair with Wes, who is handsome and a kind and attentive lover, “legitimized her choices” (222). Wes is not judgmental and provides a desirable arrangement for her and for Richard. In Wes, Sloane feels that her and Richard’s desire finally “dovetailed in a way she hadn’t thought was possible” (219). This statement reveals that most affairs which the couple pursued have been pleasurable for Richard, but problematic for Sloane. It is an exception that Sloane feels happy and whole with Wes and Richard (222). However, the motivating factor is still Richard’s desire and Sloane’s is characterized as a happy coincidence. This is revealed when Sloane wishes that Richard would explain to Jenny that “he’d pushed her to do it” (222).

Lina

The devastating power which Aidan holds over Lina is characterized in the way that, if Lina takes too long to respond, or is not available when he messages, Aidan will simply masturbate and rid himself of a desire that Lina needs time and attention to fulfill (225). Lina recognizes that it is “cruel” and “demoralizing” that Aidan gives her so little notice of his desire to meet up with her (225). She also realizes that he only messages when it is entirely convenient to him: “when he’s drunk and when he’s bored” and “when he can see her easily and not risk being caught” (226). However, Lina’s obsession with Aidan means that she takes what little he offers.

Her desperation to be with him at any cost is foregrounded in their encounter at the river. It is hugely inconvenient for Lina to meet Aidan, and after all her administrative effort, Aidan says that he needs to go. Lina responds numerous times: “I’m almost there. Please” (227). Lina’s desperation and effort is contrasted with Aidan’s brusque and indifferent responses: “better call it off Kid” (227). This exchange foregrounds the power that Aidan holds over Lina. Once again, Taddeo explores the way that Lina subjugates herself to Aidan’s indifference. Lina is characterized as helpless in the wake of her own overwhelming infatuation. The reader recognizes that Lina’s gratitude is misplaced when she joyfully reflects on how much time Aidan spent with her: “almost thirty minutes” (232). The reader is further positioned to feel sympathy for Lina when she thanks Aidan sincerely for “taking the time, for spending so much time with me today” (232).

Maggie

The courtroom receives Knodel with warmth and support: “there is the sort of laughter that accompanies the anecdotes of a well-liked man” (233). The reader is positioned to contrast Knodel’s reception with Maggie’s, where people had loudly commented on the fact that she was a liar or should have known better. Taddeo suggests that people are predisposed to like and believe Knodel because of gender and social status. This tendency is problematized by Taddeo, who positions the reader to believe Maggie’s story and to agree with Byers’ statement that “Aaron Knodel probably counted on the fact that nobody would believe this troubled teen,” which made her the “perfect victim” (248).

The reader is also positioned to agree with Byers’s assertion that Marie made the unusual choice to save her testimony for court so that she could hear and then refute Maggie’s claims. It is telling that Marie did not know that there were “twenty three calls as late as after ten at night,” and the reader is inclined to agree with Byers’s point that four-hour phone calls between 11:30pm and 3:30am cannot be explained away as “a great teacher going the extra mile” (246, 248). Hoy’s closing statement that Maggie’s memories are based in fantasy seems outrageous in light of Maggie’s devastation and trauma, her depression, and contemplation of suicide as a result of the illicit and illegal affair.