Chapter Twelve: Avery – Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Avery wakes in a Midtown hotel after the fight with her sisters, feeling shame and dissociation. She decides to visit her mother upstate without asking permission. At Grand Central, she steals a magazine, gum, and chocolate from a newsstand but is seen by a child; guilt prompts her to return and pay for the items, also surrendering her stolen Chanel wallet. On the train, she recalls traumatic childhood memories of her father’s violence and her mother’s impotence. Arriving at the dilapidated cabin, she finds her mother transformed—wearing black diaphanous layers, keeping chickens, and speaking in cryptic aphorisms. They discuss Bonnie’s boxing, Lucky’s modeling, and the sale of the apartment. Avery confronts her mother about not coming upstairs to see them at Nicky’s apartment. Her mother admits she was not suited to motherhood and that Nicky was her favorite. Avery confesses her own recent failures: sleeping with Charlie, lying to Chiti about wanting a baby, and her ongoing thefts. Her mother offers ambiguous advice. Back in the city, Avery finds Lucky has written a song on a guitar and is trying sobriety. The three sisters reconcile, share confessions, and discuss Nicky’s death. Avery later calls Chiti and finally admits she cannot have a child. Their conversation is raw but ends with mutual sorrow. The chapter closes with Avery swimming in a river, thinking of Nicky, and gasping as she breaks the surface.
Key Events
- Avery steals from a newsstand then returns the items and pays, also giving away her wallet.
- Avery visits her mother’s upstate home; finds her changed and living with chickens.
- Mother admits she never wanted to be a mother and that Nicky was her favorite.
- Avery confesses to her mother that she slept with Charlie, lied about wanting a baby, and has been stealing.
- Avery reconciles with Lucky and Bonnie; Lucky has written a song and is in recovery.
- Avery calls Chiti and tells her the truth about not wanting a child.
- The chapter ends with Avery swimming in the river, a symbol of grief and release.
Character Development
Avery: The chapter forces Avery to face her hypocrisies. Her stolen wallet and magazine theft parallel the deeper theft of trust in her marriage. Visiting her mother cracks her protective shell: she admits her own failures and hears her mother’s painful honesty. By chapter’s end, she begins to accept her grief over Nicky and her limitations as a partner, allowing herself to be vulnerable with her sisters and Chiti.
Lucky: Takes a step toward recovery, showing a guitar and a song as a constructive outlet. Her willingness to reconcile reveals growth beyond her usual defiance.
Bonnie: Serves as the emotional anchor, offering a simple faith that helps her sisters. Her confession of talking to God shows a softening of her pragmatic exterior.
Their mother: Revealed as a woman trapped by her own choices, emotionally distant yet aware of her failings. Her admission that she “went flat” after childbirth aligns with postpartum depression, and her inability to enter Nicky’s apartment underscores her unresolved grief.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Motherhood vs. freedom: The mother’s statement “I wanted to be a wife, not a mother” echoes Avery’s own ambivalence about having a child.
- Theft and addiction: Avery’s shoplifting acts as a physical manifestation of her out-of-control impulses, mirroring her relapse into smoking and compulsive behavior.
- Water and submersion: The swimming scene at the end symbolizes both a desire to join Nicky in death and a struggle to resurface into life—Avery chooses to breathe again.
- The wind chimes / chickens playing xylophone: Represent an unexpected, whimsical order amid chaos; the mother’s joy in the chickens suggests she has found her own small peace.
Why This Chapter Matters
This is the emotional center of Avery’s arc. It brings together her past and present, forcing her to acknowledge her role in the family’s dysfunction and her marriage’s collapse. The reconciliation with her sisters and the honest conversation with Chiti clear the way for the novel’s final act. The chapter also deepens our understanding of the family’s history, particularly the mother’s hidden struggles, and reveals Lucky’s tentative steps toward recovery.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Avery steal from the newsstand, and what does her decision to return the items reveal about her state of mind?
Avery steals as a way to feel present and in control—a thrill that cuts through her emotional numbness. Returning the items, and even surrendering her wallet, shows a moment of moral reckoning. She recognizes that she has become someone she does not want to be, and the act of paying and giving up the stolen wallet is a small attempt at penance.
2. What does the conversation between Avery and her mother reveal about the family’s patterns of avoiding painful truths?
Both women engage in evasion: Avery initially pretends everything is fine, and her mother deflects with talk of chickens and tea. When the truth emerges—that the mother never wanted children and that Nicky was her favorite—it exposes a legacy of emotional neglect. Their mutual inability to sustain blunt honesty mirrors the sisters’ own communication failures.
3. How does the swimming scene at the end of the chapter function symbolically for Avery’s grief?
Avery imagines Nicky swimming, recalling her sister’s ability to hold her breath. She feels drawn to the water’s “insistent and beckoning” pull, representing a desire to surrender to death. But her body instinctively kicks upward, and she breaches the surface gasping. This illustrates the tension between the wish to escape grief through oblivion and the stubborn will to keep living.