Chapter 20: 1975 — 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

The chapter opens in late 1975, on a weekend when all four Riva children happen to have sleepovers planned at the same time—the first time this has ever occurred. Nina, seventeen, is headed to a friend's party; Jay and Hud have an overnight with their water polo team; and Kit is staying at her friend Vanessa's house.

Before leaving, Nina hesitates in the kitchen, worried about leaving her mother alone. She asks June what she'll do that evening. June reassures her, saying she plans to run a bath and enjoy some rare quiet time. When Nina presses, June reminds her daughter of their familiar exchange—that June is the mom and Nina is the kid. June tells Nina to go and have fun, insisting she deserves it. Nina leaves.

Alone that evening, June settles onto the sofa with the TV Guide and plans her evening of television. Then the nightly news delivers a blow: Mick Riva, at forty-two, has married for the fifth time. His new bride is Margaux Caron, a twenty-four-year-old French model.

June's reaction is immediate and devastating. She lights a cigarette, sips her vodka, and then breaks down completely, sobbing into her hands. She thinks about how she should have listened to her mother years ago, how she's been a fool since Mick first appeared in her life. She resolves to get her life together for her children, thinking of each of them—Nina's bright smile, Jay's determination, Hud's gentleness, Kit's fierce spirit. She recognizes that her children have noticed her unraveling, that they've started doting on her and whispering about her.

But her resolve doesn't hold. She pours another glass, puts on Mick's second album, and plays 'Warm June' over and over, drinking with each rotation. She tells herself she meant something to him. When the vodka runs out, she finds a dusty bottle of tequila in the kitchen. She opens it, drinks, and draws herself a bath.

The bath feels comforting and safe to June. She slips into the warm water, rests her head back, and closes her eyes, thinking she could stay there forever. Forty-five minutes later, she has drowned.

The next morning, Nina returns home and finds her mother's body in the bathtub. She tries desperately to pull June from the water, to wake her, but cannot process what she's seeing. She runs through everyone she could call—her grandparents are dead, her father is a deadbeat. There is no one to fix this.

The moment Nina fully understands her mother is dead is the moment she realizes there is no one left in the world to count on. She holds her mother's pale hand as she calls 911, and holds it tighter as the medics arrive. The EMTs confirm what she already knows.

Nina watches her mother's body being carried away, thinking for certain she'll come back, even though she knows that's impossible. She calls Vanessa's house and asks Vanessa's mother to send Kit home. When Jay and Hud arrive, she forbids them from going inside the house. When Kit arrives moments later, Nina leads all three siblings down to the shoreline beneath the house.

There, Nina tells them their mother died. All three siblings fall to the earth in grief, and Nina catches them, holding each of them up as they scream, as the water soaks their socks and fills their shoes. She carries all of their weight—in her arms, on her back.

Key Events

All four Riva children leave for sleepovers on the same weekend for the first time
June learns on the nightly news that Mick has married for the fifth time, to a young French model
June drinks heavily, listens to 'Warm June' on repeat, and drowns in the bathtub
Nina discovers her mother's body the next morning and calls 911
Nina arranges for Kit to come home and prevents Jay and Hud from entering the house
Nina tells her siblings of their mother's death on the shoreline and holds them as they grieve

Character Development

Nina undergoes the most significant transformation in this chapter. At seventeen, she's already been acting as a caretaker for her mother—the 'who's the mom' exchange reveals how deeply the roles have inverted. But this chapter marks the moment when that informal arrangement becomes permanent and absolute. When she realizes there's no one to call, no one to fix things, she understands the full weight of her situation. Her decision to be the one to tell her siblings, and her physical act of holding them as they fall, cements her role as the family's anchor.

June is shown in her final hours as a woman consumed by unrequited love and alcoholism. Her brief moment of resolve—thinking she needs to get her life together for her children—is heartbreaking precisely because it doesn't last. The chapter shows her as both a victim of Mick's abandonment and someone whose choices led to her end.

Jay, Hud, and Kit are present mostly through their grief. Hud's silence and shock, Jay's panic, and Kit's arrival all underscore how suddenly and completely their world has changed.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Parentification is the chapter's central theme. Nina has been acting as the parent for some time, and this chapter shows the moment that role becomes permanent. The recurring exchange about who is the mom and who is the kid highlights how the family's structure has already inverted.

Abandonment runs through the chapter on multiple levels. Mick's abandonment of June is the root cause of her despair. His fifth marriage—announced on television, with no warning—is the final confirmation that he will never return. And June's death abandons her children in turn, leaving Nina to fill the void.

Alcoholism and self-destruction are shown as intertwined. June's drinking escalates through the evening, from vodka to tequila, as she spirals deeper into grief. The bath—meant to be comforting and safe—becomes the instrument of her death.

The shoreline beneath the house serves as a symbolic setting for the siblings' grief. The water that soaks their socks and fills their shoes mirrors the drowning that took their mother, while the act of Nina holding them on the beach suggests both the fragility and the strength of their bond.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is the emotional foundation of the entire novel. It explains why the Riva siblings are so fiercely bonded to one another and why Nina carries such a heavy burden in the present-day narrative. The death of June is the event that orphans the four children in every practical sense—Mick is absent, and now their mother is gone too. Nina's decision to be the one to tell her siblings, and her physical act of holding them as they grieve, establishes the family structure that defines the rest of the book. The chapter also deepens our understanding of June, showing her as a woman whose love for Mick destroyed her, and it sets up the complicated feelings the siblings will carry about their father.

Study Questions and Answers

1. What does the 'who's the mom' exchange reveal about the Riva family dynamic before June's death?

The exchange reveals that Nina has already been functioning as the parent in the household. June asks the question playfully, but it's a familiar refrain—one that has been repeated often enough that Nina answers it before it's asked. The inversion of roles is so established that both mother and daughter accept it as normal. This context makes June's death all the more devastating: Nina doesn't just lose her mother; she loses the last person who could theoretically have taken responsibility for the family.

2. How does the author use June's final evening to show the connection between her emotional state and her drinking?

June's drinking escalates in direct response to the news of Mick's fifth marriage. She starts with vodka, crying immediately after seeing the report. Her brief moment of resolve—thinking she needs to get her life together—is followed by another glass, then another, as she listens to 'Warm June' on repeat. The song, presumably written about her, becomes a way of clinging to the belief that she meant something to Mick. When the vodka runs out, she finds tequila instead of stopping. The progression shows how her grief overrides her intentions, and how alcohol becomes both her comfort and her undoing.

3. Why does Nina choose the shoreline beneath the house as the place to tell her siblings about their mother's death?

The shoreline is a liminal space—between the house and the ocean, between land and water. It's also the place where the family's grief will be physically expressed: the water soaks their socks and fills their shoes, connecting the moment to their mother's drowning. Nina chooses a place where they can fall apart together, away from the house where their mother's body was found. The setting also foreshadows the novel's present-day setting, where the ocean and the house are central to the family's story.