61 pages 2 hours read

Dolly Alderton

Good Material

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

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Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “Winter 2019/2020”

Part 3, Chapter 40 Summary: “Saturday 7th December 2019”

Andy spends a few days with his mother to recover from finally accepting that he and Jen are over. Comforted by being home, Andy considers escaping from his life in London and moving back home permanently, thinking, “[s]urely I can make some decisions that reduce the risk of heartbreak and disappointment?” (372). Andy abandons the low-carb lifestyle and returns to a regular eating pattern but decides to limit his alcohol consumption. Over dinner, he and his mother watch the general election coverage. Andy’s mother tells him that the reason getting dumped is so painful is because it reminds a person of all the times they’ve been rejected in life. She explains that he will never fully recover from the breakup and must find a way to integrate the grief into his life so that he can move on, and she promises that, eventually, it will get easier. Andy apologizes that she had to go through the same pain, and she reminds him that she wasn’t always alone. Returning to his childhood home only reminds Andy of the first time he brought Jen there, and he goes to bed contemplating how to make peace with their ending.