A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-17

Chapter 18-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Antique Oak Piano

The antique oak piano in Ricki’s flower shop symbolizes the link between past and present. When Ricki first sees it, she wonders: “There’s such faded glamour in this piano […] Who played it? Whose lives were lived here?” (26). The passage acts as foreshadowing, hinting at Ezra’s identity before the readers learn about it because he was once the original owner of the piano. At the same time, Ricki’s questions bring attention to the amount of history hiding in plain sight—one of the novel’s key secondary interests. Ricki loves feeling like a part of this history; the piano’s age and worn out quality makes it her “comfort spot” (69).Ricki notes, “This piano had old stories in it—Harlem Renaissance stories—and it felt like the lives embedded in the grain of the wood were on her side, somehow” (124).

The piano also comes to represent the connection between Ezra and Ricki. One night, Ricki acts out her attraction to Ezra at the piano: When running into Ezra after the wedding, where he plays for her in a captivating way, she masturbates atop the instrument. The scene combines desire, mystery, and art—all the qualities that will eventually define Ezra for Ricki. Later, Ricki somehow senses Ezra’s essence in the piano, even if she does not yet know what she’s recognizing: “When Ricki sat there, she felt held” (124). The feeling of being held foreshadows that their relationship will not be simply sexual, but also a long-term emotional bond.

Perennials

The fantasy concept of Perennials, or immortals who cannot die but also cannot be remembered by mortal humans for longer than a month, serves as a motif for Freedom and Empowerment in Expression. As a Perennial, Ezra has lost his will to live a full and meaningful life. After realizing he cannot die, he also loses interest in playing piano. Immortality strips him of his freedom to love, and disempowers him with its binding terms, so Ezra no longer wants to express himself through his art. Though he lives a rich life, traveling the world and inspiring other musicians, he is “inescapably lonely and unable to shake his cosmic purposelessness” (191). While Ezra is able to influence others, he’s cursed to never be remembered by name and, therefore, never acknowledged for his contributions, “a silent collaborator on too many hits to remember […] the whisper in someone’s ear” (195).

Ezra’s only motivation to keep going is the chance of finding Ricki—the woman he dreams about and has been composing about for a century. When he finally meets her, he can return to music—a reclamation symbolized by the fact that he actually finishes the song that becomes the title of the novel.

Night-Blooming Jasmine

In the language of flowers, night-blooming jasmine represents romance and mystery—but also prosperity and lasting bonds; this same symbolism applies to the novel.

The flower’s blossoms only open at night, when the vanilla almond scent reveals itself. This makes its appearance alluring and a seemingly magical—a feature that is heightened in the novel when Ricki sees a jasmine bush bloom in the Community Garden and meets Ezra. The two events affect her deeply: “that the mystery man wasn’t the only reason she’d left the garden feeling so unsettled. The scent of night-blooming jasmine made no sense. The plant flowered only from July to October. And it was winter. February 1” (37). In this scene, the unlikely blooming of the jasmine points to the magic surrounding Ezra, while its intoxicating smell highlights his romantic appeal.

Ricki’s fascination with the jasmine offers a marked contrast with her romantic predecessor, the novel’s main antagonist Felice. When Ezra first met Felice, he was performing in a nightclub so scented with jasmine that he smelled of this flower daily. When he gave her a jasmine bouquet, however, she “carelessly [dropped] the flower and kept walking, its tender petals smashed under her heels” (83). This dismissive and ruthless gesture presages Felice’s eventual destructive use of voodoo. Feeling guilt over the death of his family and Sonny’s recent drug addiction, Ezra decided “her brand of destruction was exactly what [he] needed” (83).

In the end, however, jasmine’s association with prosperity and lasting bonds wins out over these darker elements. Its prevalence underscores the romance trope of Happily Ever After that ends the novel.