46 pages • 1 hour read
Abbi WaxmanThe Bookish Life of Nina Hill
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.
Chapters 21-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 21 Summary
On Monday, May 27, Archie invites Nina to lunch to meet their sister, Millie. Millie, who is 10, describes being close with her father. She loves books but has a hard time connecting with children her own age. Nina invites Millie to the elementary book club and impulsively suggests the possibility of spending time together on Thursdays.
Chapter 22 Summary
On Saturday, June 1, Nina invites Tom to meet her at the Larchmont Spring Festival. She also brings Polly. They run into Millie and her mother, Eliza. Liz is hiding from Mr. Meffo, the landlord, and reveals that she has not paid the rent for the bookshop in six months. Liz admits that the store is struggling. Peter joins them, and Nina starts to feel overwhelmed. She faints, and Tom catches her.
Chapter 23 Summary
Tom takes Nina to her apartment. She asks Tom for time alone, saying that she needs a few days to sort things out, and he leaves. Nina calls Louise and admits that solitude is no longer the coping mechanism that it once was for her anxiety. Louise reminds Nina that anxiety is essentially a defense mechanism that “helps us know when things are wrong […] It’s just sometimes it gets ahead of itself” (266).
Chapter 24 Summary
On Monday, June 3, the Larchmont community rallies, devastated by the news that the bookstore might close. Nina misses Tom. On Saturday, she drives to visit Eliza and Millie in Malibu. Millie’s room is full of books, and Nina sees William’s library. She notices that he has a copy of Saroyan’s Human Comedy and for the first time, she feels that she has some insight into his mind. Eliza guesses that Nina is the type who prefers solitude and admits, “It takes a lot of energy to be with other people” (277).
Chapter 25 Summary
On Monday, June 10, Nina approaches the lawyer’s office for the reading of the will and envisions a saloon fight in an old Western, with cowboys spilling out of the conference room. During the meeting, Lydia is hostile and calls Nina a “moneygrubbing millennial pretender” (283). However, other family members defend Nina. William’s children inherit a portion of his millions, and each of the grandchildren receives one million dollars. Nina inherits a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. She thinks of K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider and the movie Brewster’s Millions. Lydia is jealous that Nina received something that held sentimental value to William, while the rest of the family only received money.
Chapter 26 Summary
Nina visits the garage and meets Moltres, the mechanic who has been taking care of William’s favorite car. Nina admits that she can’t drive a manual transmission, so Moltres decides to teach her. They also discuss Nina’s father. As she carefully drives the car home, she finds letters in the glovebox that are addressed to each of William’s children and grandchildren. In the letter addressed to her, William confesses his guilt over for how he treated his children, but he also admits to keeping tabs on Nina from afar. He has started a savings account for her, and it is now worth over $2 million. William admits that he also experienced anxiety, and as an adult, he dealt with his anxiety by drinking and running away from his problems. He advises Nina to trust people and hold onto her newfound family, calling them his gift to her.
Chapter 27 Summary
On Tuesday, June 11, Nina visits Lydia in Santa Monica to deliver the letter that William wrote to her. Nina realizes that Lydia is very smart and also loves trivia; she simply doesn’t like people. Lydia predicts that her letter from William will be “too little, too late” (307). She learns that Nina deals with anxiety and reminds her that it’s “the most common mental illness in America, with over forty million sufferers” (309). Liz calls to say that Mr. Meffo is transferring the bookstore’s lease to a business that sells products incorporating CBD oil.
Chapter 28 Summary
Lydia drives Nina to the bookstore, and they arrive to find protesters fighting in front of the building. Someone starts throwing ice cream. They go inside to find Liz and Mr. Meffo, who have been hiding from the mob. Lydia convinces Nina to go to the quiz bowl finals and try to win Tom back.
Chapter 29 Summary
Tom isn’t prepared to talk to Nina, so he ignores her while the teams compete. Tom does well, but when both teams are stumped on an answer about the last words of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, the question goes to the audience. Nina raises her hand to answer and takes the opportunity to apologize to Tom and ask for a second chance. She tells him, “Being with you is as good as being alone” (314). Tom kisses Nina and takes her to his workshop to show her what he does: He builds bookcases. They admit they are falling in love.
Chapter 30 Summary
Tom and Nina visit the bookstore to find Liz giving away free books. She has been eating baked goods that the new tenants sent her. Nina deduces that the treats are laced with marijuana and that Liz is now “stoned.” Nina announces that she wants to buy into the store and help run it. They partake of the pastries, and Nina, possibly feeling the effects, announces that she wants to be with Tom and travel to Mexico. The narrative concludes with the statement, “They lived happily ever after” (332).
Chapters 21-30 Analysis
The overall pace of the narrative intensifies dramatically in this final section as the various threads of Nina’s life coincide and compel her to take action to preserve the new relationships she has forged. Thus, these chapters represent the culmination of the dominant theme of Embracing Change and Broadening Social Connections, for Nina actively chooses to abandon the more rigid elements of her long-held routine in favor of bonding with the new people in her life. A prime example of this dynamic occurs when she offers to give up her Thursday evenings of “nothing” to instead spend time with her youngest sister, Mille. Similarly, she takes steps to reconcile with Lydia, and she even manages to convince Tom to rekindle their fledgling romance. In keeping with the classic, Aristotelian definition of a comedy, the book ends with positive outcomes and good fortune for all the characters, as is indicated by the author’s wry use of the stereotypical “happily ever after” conclusion.
As the novel’s various threads wind to a close, the theme of Fiction as a Refuge and a Guide continues to fill a prominent role. For example, when confronted with the reality of the sudden inheritance from William, Nina makes a joking reference to Brewster’s Millions, a 1985 comedy film about a man who stands to inherit a fortune as long as he adheres to specific circumstances. This reference keeps the novel’s tone light and self-aware even as the inheritance causes new conflicts to arise, which Nina must then find a way to solve. As she strives to communicate with her new family members, Nina also uses fiction to find a tangible connection to her father; when she finds a copy of a familiar book in his library, she feels as though she has gained a unique insight into his internal world. Additionally, when she realizes that she and William have also had similar struggles with anxiety and social awkwardness, she develops a more understanding sense of his character, and ultimately, she takes comfort in the fact that he always cared for her, even if he did so from afar.
The novel further explores the complexities of Family Bonds and Inheritance as Nina gets to know Lydia better. Once they realize how much they share in common, Lydia finally lays her hostility with Nina aside and accepts her as part of the family. Thus, these chapters are designed to illustrate the process of finding common ground with family, and Nina is therefore touched to perceive a reflection of her younger self in the shy, book-loving Millie, who struggles to relate to friends her own age. Similarly, Eliza emerges as a potential mother figure for Nina, even giving her advice on how to balance her energy. She also confirms the ways in which Nina’s personality reflects that of William’s, for they both enjoyed reading, dealt with anxiety, and shared a tendency to pull away from their loved ones when overwhelmed. Ultimately, William’s letter allows Nina to forge a lasting connection to her father, and although she never knew him in life, his written words allow her to finally hear his voice. When he confirms that he has always been interested in her life and he encourages her to connect with the family, his written sentiments redeem many of his mistakes and failings, and it is clear that at the end of his life, he learned to more deeply value his family.
The shift in Lydia from antagonist to co-conspirator refers to the novel’s earlier suggestion that people often have an active inner life that differs greatly from the persona they present to the world. Despite her initial hostility toward Nina, Lydia develops into an outward reflection of Nina’s tendency to seek out solitude. She therefore represents a version of Nina that prefers to avoid people and shun new social connections. Thus, she highlights the more extreme aspects of Nina’s personality and also serves as a foil to Nina’s more extroverted public persona. Once the two women learn to respect and appreciate each other, Lydia even becomes something of an ally, for she is able to help Nina revise her perception of her anxiety to view it as a trait that can be mitigated rather than a fundamental character flaw. As Nina develops a closer relationship with her family, she still prefers to indulge in solitude, but she also learns how to balance this preference with quality social interactions. Thus, from her perspective, telling Tom that being with him is as good as being alone is a very romantic gesture.
