Diana Scalzi Carmody in That Summer: Character Analysis

Overview

Diana Scalzi Carmody is the novel's hidden center—a woman who spends decades as a ghost in her own life before deciding to step back into it on her own terms. She enters the story as a fifteen-year-old scholarship student from South Boston, a thoughtful, book-struck girl with hazel eyes who dreams about falling in love. By the time the present-day narrative opens in 2019, she has lived several lives: the summer mother's helper on Cape Cod, the assault survivor whose education and sense of self were derailed, the night-shift custodian, the waitress, the restaurant owner, and finally the woman who constructs a false identity to confront the men who hurt her. The novel tracks her transformation from victim to agent, and her arc raises the central question of what justice can look like decades after a crime.

Plot Role

Diana is the catalyst for the entire present-day plot. The novel's framing device—Daisy Shoemaker receiving emails meant for another woman named Diana—is not an accident but a deliberate trap Diana has laid. She has claimed an email address close to the other Diana's, built a fake website and Facebook page, and studied consultant lingo so she can pass as a corporate professional. Her goal is to reach Daisy Shoemaker, wife of her rapist and sister of the boy who watched. The Diana Starling persona is a performance, one Diana herself compares to drag: she rents a suit, applies false lashes, and transforms herself into a believable executive. The costume is so effective that Daisy never suspects the woman she is befriending is connected to her husband's past.

Diana's plot role is therefore twofold: she is both the detective reconstructing a buried history and the agent who forces that history into the open. Her research on Hal Shoemaker—his law firm, his education, his home address, his daughter's name—mirrors the work of an investigator, but her methods are personal. She visits the Emlen Academy archives under a forged letter of introduction to read the 1987 yearbook and find Poe's senior picture, an act that feels like taking an arrow through her heart. The scene establishes that her investigation is not cold-blooded; it is an act of survival.

Motivations and Traits

Diana's primary motivation is accountability. For decades she has lived with the aftermath of the assault: the lost college years, the compulsive eating, the suicidal thoughts, the inability to be touched. She tells Michael that she tried to do the right thing once and it turned out badly, a reference to an earlier attempt at justice that failed. The novel does not dramatize that earlier attempt, but its consequences are clear in her shame and her conviction that the system will not help her.

Her decision to act is triggered by the Supreme Court confirmation hearings, where a woman's testimony is dismissed and the accused man is confirmed. Diana watches the hearings and thinks about all the men who harmed women and sailed on with lives continued, unimpaired. She concludes that she cannot give herself the luxury of inaction. This is a turning point: her motivation shifts from private suffering to public responsibility. She thinks about her nieces and all the girls growing up in a world where being born female means spending years at risk, existing as prey or barely existing at all.

Diana's traits emerge through her actions. She is meticulous—she researches Hal's life exhaustively, learns the names of Emlen's buildings, and constructs a believable cover story. She is patient—she waits years before acting, and then approaches sideways rather than head-on. She is also deeply conflicted. After meeting Daisy in New York, she tells Michael, I liked her, and her voice catches. She recognizes that Daisy is sweet and young and innocent, and that she is about to come smashing through her life like a wrecking ball. The novel does not present Diana as a righteous avenger without cost; it shows her guilt, her hesitation, and her awareness that her quest will hurt an innocent woman.

Chronological Arc

Diana's arc spans roughly thirty-five years. The prologue establishes her as a bright, hopeful teenager who wins her parents' permission to spend the summer on Cape Cod. Her sisters give her a yellow bikini; her grandmother gives her a hundred dollars. She cares for the Levy twins, swims at Gull Pond, and meets Poe at Great Hollow Beach. The bonfire scene—where Poe tells her she looks like summer and hands her a drink—is the hinge on which her life turns.

The aftermath is devastating. Diana's high school years pass in an unhappy gray miasma. She eats compulsively, sometimes until she vomits. She lasts three semesters at UMass before dropping out. She works as a temp, then as a night-shift custodian at BU, where she mops floors and thinks about whether she could kill herself and make it look like an accident. The Dorothy Parker poem she recites—You might as well live—becomes her grim mantra.

The turning point comes when Dr. Levy appears at her door with cannoli. This visit, and Diana's eventual meeting with Michael Carmody, begins her slow reconstruction. Michael is the first person she tells about the assault. He insists it is not her fault, and he asks her what she wants to happen next—a question that reframes her life as something she can choose. They marry, and Diana builds a new identity as a restaurant owner, the Abbey in Provincetown.

But the past does not stay buried. The Supreme Court hearings, and the nagging thought that Hal might have hurt other women, push Diana toward action. She creates the Diana Starling persona, befriends Daisy, and eventually reveals her true identity. The revelation forces Daisy to confront Hal, and the novel's coda shows the aftermath: Daisy and Beatrice stay in the Truro house, Daisy's mother cooks at the Abbey, and Diana teaches Beatrice crafts. Diana's arc ends not with revenge but with integration—she has brought the past into the light and built a life that includes it.

Relationships

Michael Carmody. Michael is Diana's anchor. He is the caretaker of the Truro property owned by Hal's father, which means he lives in the landscape of Diana's trauma. He is patient, gentle, and the first person she trusts with her story. When she tells him she is not sure she can be with anyone, he says, As slow as you need. Their marriage is presented as a refuge, but Michael also functions as a moral compass. He asks Diana what the endgame is, and he worries about her suffering. He does not approve of her plan, but he does not stop her.

Daisy Shoemaker. Diana's relationship with Daisy is the novel's central dynamic. Diana initially sees Daisy as a means to an end—the wife of her rapist, the sister of the boy who watched. But meeting Daisy complicates her plan. Diana finds herself liking her, and her guilt grows. The relationship becomes genuinely transformative: Daisy learns the truth about her husband, and Diana learns that her quest cannot be completed without collateral damage. Their friendship, forged in the aftermath of the revelation, is the novel's hopeful note.

Dr. Levy. Dr. Levy is a mentor figure who appears at two crucial moments: she hires Diana as a mother's helper, and she shows up at Diana's door years later with cannoli. Her visit is the first step toward Diana's recovery. Dr. Levy represents the possibility of adult intervention and care, though the novel does not suggest she knew about the assault.

Poe / Henry Shoemaker. Poe is the boy who assaults Diana. He is a recent Emlen Academy graduate, bound for Dartmouth, and he tells Diana she looks like summer before handing her a drink. His senior yearbook picture, which Diana finds decades later, still wounds her. He is never named as Hal in the prologue; the revelation that Poe is Hal Shoemaker, Daisy's husband, is the novel's central twist.

Danny. Daisy's brother Danny watched without intervening. Diana's decision to approach Daisy is partly motivated by the fact that Daisy is connected to both living men who harmed her: she is Hal's wife and Danny's sister.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Diana's first key decision is to accept the summer job with Dr. Levy. This decision leads directly to the assault, but the novel does not blame her for it; it is presented as a reasonable choice for a scholarship student seeking money and experience.

Her second key decision is to tell Michael about the assault. This is the first time she has spoken the words I was raped aloud, and it is the beginning of her recovery. The consequence is a marriage built on honesty and patience.

Her third key decision is to create the false identity and befriend Daisy. This is the decision that drives the plot. Its consequences are both destructive and liberating: Daisy's marriage ends, but Daisy is freed from a controlling husband, and Diana finally sees her attacker face to face. The novel suggests that Diana's quest was never about punishment but about being seen.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Diana embodies the novel's central themes. Her story is a case study in healing from sexual trauma as a nonlinear, lifelong process: she does not recover in a straight line, and her healing takes decades. Her decision to confront Hal raises questions about the moral complexity of revenge and the search for accountability. Her anger at the boys who watched, and her decision to approach Daisy rather than the men, speaks to bystander complicity and the culture of silence. Her friendship with Daisy, which begins as manipulation and becomes genuine, illustrates female friendship as a source of strength and transformation. And her trajectory from South Boston scholarship student to Cape Cod restaurant owner, passing as a consultant along the way, engages class privilege, social mobility, and the performance of identity.

The symbol of drag is central to Diana's characterization. She explicitly compares her executive costume to drag, and the novel draws a parallel between her performance and the drag queens she has watched for years. The costume is a shield and a weapon: it allows her to move through Daisy's world undetected, but it also forces her to confront the gap between who she is and who she pretends to be. The shells she decoupages, mentioned in the reading group guide, are a quieter symbol—she transforms found objects into art, just as she transforms her trauma into a life.

Questions and Answers

1. Why does Diana create the false Diana Starling identity instead of confronting Hal directly?

Diana decides to approach the problem sideways and come at the women because she wants to minimize harm to innocent people, especially children. She is also aware that a direct confrontation would likely be dismissed—she has seen what happened when the Supreme Court nominee's accuser came forward. The false identity gives her access to Daisy, and through Daisy, to Hal.

2. What role does Michael play in Diana's decision to act?

Michael is both a source of support and a voice of caution. He is the first person Diana tells about the assault, and his insistence that it was not her fault helps her begin to heal. But he also asks her what the endgame is, and he worries that her plan will cause more suffering. He does not stop her, but his disapproval is palpable.

3. Why does Diana approach Daisy rather than going straight to the men?

Diana's stated reason is that she wants to avoid hurting children. She also recognizes that Daisy is connected to both living men who harmed her—Hal as his wife, Danny as his sister. Approaching Daisy is a way of reaching both men through one person.

4. What does Diana mean when she says she needed to see Brad and have him see her, and how does Brad's death complicate her quest?

Diana's conclusion that what she needed was simply to see Brad and have him see her suggests her quest was never primarily about punishment. She needed to be recognized as a person, not as a memory or a statistic. Brad's death by suicide—he was Hal's friend and one of the boys from that summer—complicates the question of accountability, because one of the men who harmed her is no longer alive to face consequences.

5. How does Diana's relationship with Dr. Levy shape her story?

Dr. Levy hires Diana for the summer that changes her life, and she reappears years later with cannoli, providing the first gesture of care that begins Diana's recovery. Dr. Levy represents the possibility of adult intervention, though the novel does not suggest she knew about the assault. Her visit is the first step toward Diana's eventual healing.

For a deeper look at how Diana's story resolves, see the ending explained page, or browse common reader questions about the novel.