Midnight At The Blackbird Cafe

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-24

Chapters 25-29

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

A reporter asks Faylene Wiggins, a retired art teacher and known gossip in the town of Wicklow, to begin at the beginning of the story of the blackbirds, so she starts her narrative with the funeral of Zora “Zee” Callow, during which mourners noticed some blackbirds that flew over the service in a cluster.

The narrative moves to focus on Anna Kate, Zora “Zee” Callow’s granddaughter, who awakens in her apartment in Wicklow, Alabama to the sound of people milling around the yard outside her grandmother’s café below. Anna Kate recently graduated from the University of Massachusetts in Boston and plans to start medical school in August, but her grandmother’s will requires Anna Kate to run the Blackbird Café for two months before she can sell it. Anna Kate hopes to use the proceeds of the sale to pay for medical school.

Anna Kate and Zee shared a close relationship, even though Anna Kate’s mother, Eden, left Wicklow at 18 and refused to allow Anna Kate to visit. Eden left Wicklow after Anna Kate’s father, Andrew James “AJ” Linden, died in a car accident. Eden was driving the car and AJ’s parents, especially his mother, Seelie Earl Linden, blamed Eden for his death. Eden also insisted Zee not tell Anna Kate about the blackbirds in Wicklow. Zee told Anna Kate anyway. She explained that there is a family of Celtic women, guardians of a mythical passageway between heaven and earth, who help bring messages from deceased loved ones to the living. This passageway exists between a pair of red mulberry trees behind Zee’s café. Twenty-four blackbirds, who are the tree keepers and souls of the guardians, protect the trees. The blackbirds passed on the messages through pies Zee baked and sold at her café.

Anna Kate confronts the people in the yard, and they explain they are birdwatchers in town to see the rare blackbirds that showed up over a week ago after Zee’s funeral. Anna Kate tells them the blackbirds gather at midnight in the mulberry trees, something they express to be unusual. Anna Kate permits them to stay on the property as long as they don’t block the front of the café.

Chapter 2 Summary

Natalie Linden Walker, AJ’s younger sister and Anna Kate’s aunt, paces outside the Blackbird café with her nearly-two-year-old daughter, Olivia “Ollie” Leigh. She wants to go inside and have a piece of pie, but she fears her mother’s reaction if she is caught. Seelie forbade Natalie from having anything to do with the Callow family, including their café. Natalie paces and attempts to decide if she wants to cause more tension in her already difficult relationship with her mother. As she tries to make her decision, she notices how the economy during her four-year absence impacted her hometown. Wicklow once included artists and tourists from all over, but now the downtown contains numerous closed or failing businesses.

Natalie runs into Faylene Wiggins, the retired art teacher and town gossip. Faylene asks about Matthew, Natalie’s deceased husband. It is because of Matthew’s death that Natalie returned to Wicklow. Her desire to understand if his drowning was an accident or something else brought her to the Blackbird Café. Faylene offers to babysit Ollie anytime since she keeps her granddaughter, Lindy-Lou, several times a week. Faylene comments on Ollie’s headband, and Natalie offers to make one for Lindy-Lou.

A man comes along the sidewalk with a dog. Faylene introduces him as Cam Kolbaugh and calls him their local mountain man. He recently moved to the area from Tennessee, and he is a photographer as well as the brother of Faylene’s son-in-law, Josh. Cam tells them he’s on assignment to take pictures of the blackbirds. Natalie tells him the birds only appear for an hour at midnight.

As everyone goes about their business, Natalie turns around and is shocked to see her mother Seelie outside the café. Seelie says she paused on her way to a meeting to see what the fuss was at the café. Natalie looks inside and spots Anna Kate Callow. She thinks Anna Kate looks very little like her petite, blond grandmother. Faylene returns and comments on the rumors swirling around about Anna Kate, but Seelie cuts her off before she can say what those rumors are.

Chapter 3 Summary

A reporter asks Bow Barthelemy, the cook at the Blackbird Café, about the blackbirds. Bow says the blackbirds have been around for centuries and Zee once said they were all relatives.

Mr. Otis Lazenby, one of the café’s regular customers, asks Anna Kate about her plans. She says she’s going to medical school in August. She promised her mother she’d become a doctor, and she plans to fulfill that promise. Otis complains that the pies don’t taste right and Jena Barthelemy, the café’s waitress, chastises him for it. Otis worries he won’t dream because the pies aren’t right. Anna Kate worries, too, because Jena made the pies even though Anna Kate knows only a guardian is supposed to make them.

The café is a converted carriage house that Zee renovated into a café on the ground floor and an apartment on the second. It is an open concept with only a half wall separating the dining and cooking areas, so everyone can see every mistake Anna Kate makes. She has never worked in a café before. Jena and Bow assure her she’s doing fine. They explain that the café is busier than usual because of the birdwatchers and the town’s curiosity about Anna Kate’s.

Faylene comes in and comments that Zee kept Anna Kate’s existence secret. Anna Kate explains that she moved around a lot as a kid because her mom, Eden, was a traveling nurse. Anna Kate never found a place where she felt at home. Eden died a few years ago from a blood clot. Faylene talks about the plans Eden had with AJ, and how she quickly left town after AJ’s death. Faylene puts it down to Seelie blaming Eden for the accident that killed AJ. Unfortunately, Eden had no memory of the accident due to her injuries and couldn’t say what caused the accident on a clear, beautiful afternoon. However, she always insisted it was an accident.

Pebbles Lutz asks what kind of doctor Anna Kate plans to be, commenting that James “Doc” Linden, AJ’s father, is a family doctor. This comment solidifies for Anna Kate that people in town suspect she is AJ’s daughter. She is not ready to admit it, however, because she doesn’t know how to interact with the Linden family after all the hatred and anger her mother expressed against them. Otis asks what will happen to the café if Anna Kate goes off to be a doctor. He worries there won’t be any more pie and no more dream messages from his deceased wife. Anna Kate, upset by Otis’s anger, steps outside where she runs into Summer Pavegeau delivering fresh eggs. Summer tells Anna Kate that she helped Zee often. She says she sold Zee eggs and worked in her garden. Anna Kate pays for the eggs and arranges for a delivery of more eggs and some blackberries the next day. Bow steps outside and tells Anna Kate that Doc Linden is there to see her.

Chapter 4 Summary

Anna Kate hesitates to face Doc Linden. She expects him to be some kind of monster based on her mother’s stories. However, he proves to be a sad man who looks very much like the pictures she saw of AJ. Doc also appears sickly. Anna Kate thinks his skin looks unhealthy and the whites of his eyes appear yellowish. He stumbles a little as he joins her on the back deck, but he blames the heat. Doc offers condolences for Zee’s death. He asks why Eden kept Anna Kate a secret, and Anna Kate points out that the Lindens accused Eden of murder and barred her from the funeral of the man she loved. Doc insists that Anna Kate only knows one side of the story. Doc asks Anna Kate to come to Sunday dinner at his home He offers her information about her father, including family photo albums. Anna Kate refuses the offer.

Chapter 5 Summary

The reporter asks Otis if it is true that the pies at the Blackbird Café prompt dreams of the diner’s deceased loved ones. Otis says the reporter would understand if he’d ever had a piece of the pie.

A bird gets into the café, and Anna Kate searches for it, but it disappears. Bow and Jena exchange words about cats and birds. Anna Kate doesn’t understand its significance but she senses it is a sore subject between the couple. Jena expresses pain in her shoulder when she reaches for a roll of paper towels, blaming it on an old injury. Anna Kate urges her to go to a doctor, but Jena refuses.

Anna Kate asks Jena and Bow if they lived in Wicklow when her parents’ accident happened. Jena says AJ and Eden fought a lot that summer because Eden didn’t want AJ to leave her behind when he went to college. Eden also fought with Zee because Zee wanted Eden to stay in Wicklow and help run the café. Finally, AJ and Eden came up with a plan where AJ would attend college, and Eden would go with him and attend a nursing program. After school, they would travel the world until it was time to settle in Wicklow, as AJ’s family expected him to take over his father’s medical practice. Zee gave them a loan to help them rent an apartment. However, Seelie found out about their plan and told AJ she wouldn’t pay for his education if he stayed with Eden. On the day of the accident, Eden and AJ had gone to take a tour of the university. Seelie believes AJ told Eden that day that he was choosing college over her, and Eden caused the accident in a fit of rage over him leaving her. However, despite Seelie’s influence with the police, there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Eden, and she left town soon after.

Anna Kate decides to take a piece of pie to Summer’s home as part of her payment for the eggs. Bow offers to go with her, but Anna Kate insists on going alone. Bow gives her a crude map to the remote home. Bow and Jena warn Anna Kate about Summer’s father, Aubin Pavegeau. He was in a car accident with his wife a few years ago, and his wife was killed. Aubin’s disability and grief changed him. He doesn’t work and visits his wife’s grave at the cemetery most days.

As Anna Kate makes her way downtown, she runs into Natalie and Ollie playing in the park. Natalie asks Anna Kate why Doc visited her at the café and why Seelie wanted to spy on her. Anna Kate explains that AJ was her father. This upsets Natalie and she leaves.

Chapter 6 Summary

Anna Kate gets lost as she looks for the Pavegeau home. She hears a chickadee crying in the trees and then spots a gray cat that leads her back to the main road. A truck comes up the road and Anna Kate is surprised to see Gideon Kipling, her grandmother’s attorney and neighbor, behind the wheel. He offers her a ride to the Pavegeau home. As he drives, Gideon tells Anna Kate that he lived in Huntsville, came to Wicklow to do some mountain biking, and never left. He warns that Wicklow has a way of drawing people in. When they arrive at the Pavegeaus, Aubin is there alone. Gideon drops Anna Kate off. Aubin welcomes Anna Kate onto his porch and pours them a glass of sweet blackberry tea that Aubin made himself. Aubin tells Anna Kate he was a childhood friend of AJ’s and that he knew Eden well but refuses to tell her any more than that, though he asks Anna Kate if Eden had a happy life. Anna Kate responds cryptically.

Chapters 1-6 Analysis

By setting the novel in the fictional town of Wicklow, Alabama, Webber creates a realistic setting that centers her main character within the town gossip. This small town is steeped in Southern culture and mannerisms. As a former art colony that fell into poverty due to a lack of activity in the small-town businesses, Wicklow fits the genre of Southern Gothic. Not only are there the customs of the South that are common in this genre, but the poverty of the town enables the social commentary that is often seen in Southern Gothic. The introduction of Wicklow as the home of mythical blackbirds that have a connection to deceased loved ones fits the genre of magical realism. Within the realistic setting, a fantasy element threads into the plot of an otherwise contemporary novel.

Webber further employs magical realism when Anna Kate gets lost looking for the Pavegeau home and is led back to safety by a gray cat. This first meeting with the gray cat appears to be a coincidence, or the cat is an exceptionally smart feline who was intuitive enough to understand Anna Kate’s predicament. However, this first meeting foreshadows several more interactions between Anna Kate and the gray cat throughout the novel. Aubin Pavegeau’s throwaway comment that he dislikes cats, especially gray ones, turns out to be the key to the cat’s identity and significance.

The narrative introduces many characters in these first few chapters, including the protagonist, Anna Kate Callow. Anna Kate’s background supplies her character with abundant potential for growth. She becomes a curiosity among the locals, which places her on a stage that she is not used to. Anna Kate has never found it easy to make connections with other people because she and her mother moved around so much. She has to interact with people she might not otherwise have gotten to know, which expands her horizons and pushes her out of her comfort zone. This foreshadows Anna Kate’s attitude change. She initially keeps people at arm’s length but eventually seeks human connections and a future she never knew she wanted in the first place.

The deuteragonist is Natalie Linden Walker. A widow, Natalie struggles with a difficult relationship with her mother and with questions surrounding her husband’s drowning death. These elements define Natalie in these early chapters and characterize her as a woman lost in the anger stage of grief as well as a child who still rebels against her overbearing mother. The first few paragraphs that introduce Natalie show her struggling to find the courage to defy her mother’s two-decades-old edict that no one in the Linden family shall ever visit the Blackbird Café. Natalie is ignorant of the true nature of the motivation for this mandate. At the age of 28, she still struggles to break free of her mother’s control and live her life as she pleases. This difficult relationship is a feature of Southern Gothic stories, which frequently explore the overbearing mother figure and timid adult child. This relationship dynamic exists between Amanda and Laura Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie and Miss Emily and her father in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.”

The antagonist is Seelie Earl Linden. Anna Kate believes Seelie is a monster because of the deep emotional scars her mother, Eden, carried all her life. Not only did Eden lose AJ, the love of her life, but Seelie blamed Eden for AJ’s death. Anna Kate appears afraid to confront this woman and struggles with what she should do if she comes face to face with members of the Linden family. At the same time, Natalie paints Seelie as a cold and distant woman who wasn’t always so but became this way after AJ died. By introducing the theme of Grief and Guilt in these early chapters, Webber sets up a comparison between the impact of grief on Natalie and Seelie, which allows the reader to see the similarities in their reaction to a sudden death, but also appreciate how grief changed Seelie and Natalie’s relationship, and the potential Natalie’s grief has to change her relationship with her daughter, Ollie. Anna Kate’s character is both the product of grief and the catalyst for healing others’ grief.

Other characters introduced in these early chapters are Faylene Wiggins, the town gossip; Otis Lazenby, an elderly café customer who is addicted to the dreams the pies bring him from his deceased wife; Bow and Jena Barthelemy, employees of the café with a mysterious past; Doc Linden, the town’s doctor and AJ’s father, who conceals serious health issues; Auden and Summer Pavegeau, small side characters with a connection to Anna Kate’s past; and Gideon Kipling and Cam Kolbaugh, potential love interests and voices of reason. Each of these characters has a smaller role in the plot, but each brings an important facet to the story. Some enhance the Southern Gothic or magical realism elements, others offer motivation for a larger character to act.

Chapters begin with a snippet of one of the interviews the reporter conducts in and about the café. While these snippets appear inconsequential at first, they advance the plot, provide insight into the thoughts and opinions of various characters, and promote magical realism elements through discussion of the dreams the pies provide as though they are a simple and accepted fact.