This Must Be the Place

Rosalind’s chapter is a miniature study in the contrasting effects of infidelity and fidelity, relating to The Isolating Effect of Secrets. While Rosalind was faithful to her husband for over 40 years, her discovery of his casual infidelity yields only his frustration rather than an admission or apology. It is the existence of a secret son and her husband’s refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing that fundamentally betray Rosalind, rather than the infidelity itself. Her experience allows her to see Daniel’s genuine regret and counsel him to fix things with Claudette. Rosalind’s view of Daniel shows how he’s changed from a grief-stricken man struggling with addiction to a reliable father supporting his son. She can see Daniel’s capacity for fidelity even in the face of past mistakes because of her own experience.

The seismology motif is most distinct in Chapter 26, with the salt desert and its effects both physically and emotionally on the characters. When Daniel and Rosalind talk in the middle of the night, he tells her that Niall says the minerals make Salar de Uyuni the “purest [place] on earth” (342). When she asks about Niall’s childhood, Daniel says that Niall is “unadulterated” and compares him to the salt desert (343). The desert is pure and brilliant, reflecting light back from the sun, and that light leads Rosalind to be direct with Daniel and tell him to do the work to win back Claudette.

The theme of The Dissociating Nature of Trauma is left unresolved with Marithe’s thoughts at the zoo. The trauma of her father moving away combined with the onset of puberty ties Marithe’s sense of dissociation to Phoebe’s earlier experience. Her discovery, via Ari, of her mother’s secret further complicates her hold on reality. The trauma of growing up and discovering that the world isn’t as she imagined as a child creates multiple selves split inside of her. When she brings this up to Claudette, Claudette tells her that this dissociation can be a source of strength and wisdom, even if it’s never resolved. This connects with the theme of the isolating effect of secrets, as it suggests that Claudette has made peace with her own trauma even though she does not reintegrate into the world.

The Donegal house is both the start and the end of the novel, and just as Claudette has finally begun fixing the last parts of the house, the last elements of her life are coming together as the novel ends. After leaving various areas in the house untouched for years, when Daniel comes back at the end of the novel, Claudette begins to tackle what she and Daniel always called “the Time Capsule” (371). Throughout their years living in the house, Claudette left this strange little alcove alone so that it reflected what the house looked like when she moved in. When Claudette and Daniel work together to improve it at the end of the novel, it represents the work they’re now willing to do for their future.

The final chapter returns to Daniel’s first-person point of view. The other first-person chapters take place in 2010, when his and Phoebe’s story converge, tied to his discovery of the truth about Nicola’s death. The first-person sections in the earlier parts of the novel are Daniel’s account of the events that led to his losses. The last chapter, returning to the Donegal house and to Daniel’s first-person perspective in the garden, represents a cyclical return to the idyllic life that he thought he’d achieved at the start of the novel. After confessing his secrets and healing from his traumas, he is finally ready to repair and rebuild his life in earnest. Rather than acting in conflict with Claudette, as he did in the beginning, he is now willing to share her reclusive world.