46 pages • 1 hour read
Robinne LeeThe Idea of You
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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BetaChapters 11-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “New York, II”
Content Warning: This section contains references to unwanted sexual comments and touching, sexual violence, and self-harm.
Solène and Isabelle travel to New York for August Moon’s film premiere. In the weeks before the premiere, Solène notices comments from Hayes’s fans on her social media accounts and fears being identified as Hayes’s girlfriend. The August Moon documentary opens successfully. When Solène finally meets up with Hayes at the after party, he kisses her publicly. At the party, she discusses aging and dating with her friend Amara, who congratulates Solène on finding Hayes. Oliver approaches the women and, when he and Solène are alone, begins to make inappropriate comments to Solène. As they speak, Penelope, Oliver’s sister and Hayes’s former lover, approaches them and introduces herself. Uncomfortable, Solène excuses herself.
She finds Hayes, who comforts her and apologizes for her discomfort over his past liaisons. He ushers her over to his parents and introduces them. Later, Solène finds herself alone with Hayes. He warns her about how their public debut as a couple will elicit criticism from fans. Solène tells Hayes how proud she is of him and of his art.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Anguilla”
Solène struggles not to read the invasive and rude comments left on her social media pages by strangers. Hayes’s fans and the press leave voicemails at the gallery. One evening, a tearful Isabelle alerts Solène to a viral video posted of them with Hayes in New York. Solène makes Isabelle promise not to search Hayes’s name and to ignore any press about them.
Solène and Isabelle spend Christmas with her parents in Boston. Due to the public knowledge of their relationship, Solène confides in her mother about Hayes and their age difference. Her mother’s amused reaction surprises her. After Christmas, Solène travels to Anguilla with Hayes. On the island, he confesses his love for Solène, but she does not respond. As the trip progresses, Hayes asks about Solène’s desire to have another child. She emphasizes her commitment to her work but does not dismiss the idea completely. Hayes reiterates his respect for Solène’s commitment to her work.
They enjoy the privacy of the island and have sex out in the open on a boat. Solène finally informs Hayes about Oliver’s predatory behavior toward her. As they await their departures to their respective cities, Hayes receives information about photos that have been published in gossip magazines. The photos show Hayes and Solène having sex.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Aspen”
Solène returns home to Los Angeles and shuts off her phone to avoid the onslaught of calls and texts. The next morning, she turns on her phone and discovers multiple frantic calls and messages from Hayes. He chastises her for not updating him and says he had feared she had harmed herself out of distress. Isabelle returns from her trip to Hawaii with Daniel and refuses to look at her mother. Daniel argues with Solène about the impact of her relationship on their daughter. Later that week, Isabelle and Solène finally speak. Surprisingly, Isabelle expresses her support for her mother and does not blame her mother for the public backlash.
Hayes arrives in Los Angeles for business. They celebrate his birthday together with the band. Later that night, Solène and Oliver find themselves alone. When he expresses his surprise that Solène is still with Hayes after the publication of the photos, Solène questions Oliver’s intentions. Solène and Hayes travel to Aspen for Hayes’s birthday. On the trip, Solène finally confesses her love for Hayes.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Beverly Hills”
Hayes returns to Los Angeles for the Grammys. On one quiet evening at home with Isabelle, Hayes informs Solène that he is considering purchasing the Malibu home they once stayed in together. Later, August Moon does not win any Grammy awards. Solène attends the after party with Hayes, which leads to a night full of drunkenness and passionate sex. Early in the morning, Solène wakes to the sound of a distressed girl in the hallway. As Hayes sleeps, she discovers a 16-year-old who had sex with one of Hayes’s bandmates and needs help finding her way home. Hayes warns Solène not to help her out of fear for his reputation. Finally, he relents and calls the front desk to arrange for the girl’s return home. Solène learns that the girl attends school with Isabelle. The next morning, Hayes apologizes for not helping the girl earlier. He tells her the story of a girl in Tokyo who threatened to die by suicide in his hotel room after he asked her to leave. This incident scarred Hayes and made him selective about the women he has sex with. The band leaves for their tour in South America.
Chapter 15 Summary: “South America”
While Hayes tours South America, Solène discovers that the gallery has been vandalized with the words “DIE WHORE” (316). They call the police to report the vandalism as well as the multiple death threats the gallery has received since Solène and Hayes’s relationship has been publicized. Upon returning home, Solène discovers a mysterious package with a sex toy and a warning to leave Hayes alone. Unnerved, Solène attempts to call Hayes, who does not answer. Desperate, she calls her mother, who comforts her and encourages her to accept how much she loves Hayes.
The next day, Solène picks up Isabelle from a sleepover and consoles her when Isabelle shares her despair over the rumors surrounding Hayes and Solène’s relationship. Against Hayes’s advice, Solène searches for her name on the Internet and discovers multiple websites featuring photos of her and posts deriding her appearance, age, and relationship with Hayes.
Solène flies to Buenos Aires to join the band on tour. At the hotel, she encounters Oliver alone in the elevator. He continues to speak to her cryptically and alludes to his knowledge of Hayes’s sexual relationship with Oliver’s sister Penelope. Solène waits to disclose this information to Hayes until further into her visit. As the tour continues throughout South America, Solène follows the band and grows homesick for her life back home. Shortly before their concert in Brazil begins, Hayes and Oliver fight in the dressing room about Hayes’s past relationship with Penelope. Oliver confronts Hayes and punches him in his face when Hayes alludes to Oliver’s sexual attraction to him. With a fractured nose, Hayes skips the concert.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Japan”
After South America, Solène flies to New York for an art exhibition. She struggles to reacclimate to life without Hayes. While meeting with her friend Amara, Solène reveals her deep fear that Hayes will abandon her in the future because of their age difference. She also worries about whether she can commit to Hayes’s hectic lifestyle. After losing a prospective artist due to her newly tarnished reputation, Solène breaks down. Lulit comforts her and questions whether she can continue her relationship with Hayes.
Later that evening, Solène picks up a distraught Isabelle from school. Isabelle confides in Solène about the teasing she has endured due to Solène and Hayes’s relationship. Solène attempts to console Isabelle and decides she can no longer continue her relationship with Hayes. When Solène calls him, Hayes begs Solène to wait until they are together in Japan.
Solène arrives in Japan. Hayes shares that some music producers have reached out to work with him solo. Throughout the trip, Solène and Hayes waver between crying over the potential end of their relationship and enjoying their limited time together. On one shopping trip, a crowd of fans gather and mob them, which leaves Solène unnerved. The day before she leaves, Hayes and Solène finally discuss the fate of their relationship. Despite her great love for Hayes, Solène chooses to end the relationship.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Home”
In the weeks following their break-up, Solène struggles. As Isabelle comforts her mother, Solène encourages Isabelle never to close herself off from love. Unexpectedly, Hayes arrives later that night and begs Solène to restart their relationship. They have sex twice; however, when Hayes exposes that he has quit the band to be with Solène, she forces him to leave. To convince Hayes, Solène attempts to tell Hayes that she only loved “the idea of you” (371). Hayes returns to the band and continues to contact Solène for months. She does not answer but continues loving him from a distance.
Chapters 11-17 Analysis
In this section, Solène finally expresses her love for Hayes openly. No longer holding back, Solène allows herself to feel and communicate the deep love she feels for Hayes. Buoyed by Hayes’s support of her passion for art and their natural connection, Solène ignores her concerns regarding Hayes’s obsessive fans and societal judgement. This moment in Aspen marks a pivotal turning point in the narrative. Solène commits to their relationship and allows herself to consider the possibility of a real future with Hayes. However, upon returning home from Aspen, a barrage of fans immediately harasses them at the airport, reminding the reader that their future is far from certain.
This point in the narrative is indicative of Lee’s subversion of the traditional conventions of romantic fiction: narrative twists that play on the reader’s expectation and hopes often appear in modern romantic novels. The high point at which Solène declares her love in Aspen marks the setting at which a classic, happy-ending romance might finish. Instead, Lee develops her novel to take the narrative to the opposite conclusion. Doing so, she explores her theme of Reality Versus Fantasy not only in her subject matter but in the structure of her novel. The purpose and construct of literary realism is explored and the act of reading as an act of fantasy is exposed.
As Solène and Hayes’s relationship develops, Lee continues to expose The Complexities of Celebrity. Repeatedly, Solène witnesses the violence of the fan mobs that threaten her and Hayes’s physical safety. After the publicization of their relationship, the violence moves beyond the physical as Solène starts to receive mysterious packages at her home filled with sex toys and disparaging, threatening warnings. Solène feels violated by this invasion of her privacy and describes hearing “panting as I rushed to put on the alarm and every light, and it took me a moment to realize the panting was mine” (317). These packages induce a psychological torment for Solène, who begins to fear everything around her. Eventually, an intimate moment between Hayes and Solène on vacation becomes exposed and threatens to upend Solène’s career and Isabelle’s school life. Lee highlights the loss of humanity experienced by celebrities and those they love as fans become consumed by a desire to claim ownership over their cherished celebrity. Solène notes the double standard for her and Hayes as Hayes “had the luxury of living in his cocoon because the fandom would always protect him” while she “feared what that meant for [her], and [her] family” (321). The harassment from fans takes a physical toll on Solène as she begins to lose weight and struggles to focus on work while her daughter Isabelle faces teasing from her peers. These mounting pressures push Solène closer to ending her relationship with Hayes despite their deep connection.
Lee considerably develops her theme of Society’s Disregard for Aging Women. As Solène starts to consider how to end her relationship with Hayes, she continues to engage in conversations with her friends about society’s view of women and aging. At the after party for August Moon’s documentary, Amara, Solène’s friend, shares her concerns about her advancing age. She discusses how society’s changing view of her as less desirable due to her age “inadvertently changes how [she] see[s] [her]self” (253). Lee shows this experience as universal for women. Solène anticipates this same shift for her in the future and fears how her age may limit Hayes from pursuing a life full of promise and experiences. Lee further explores this theme through the hate messages that Solène receives, many of which make reference to her age and appearance, and the condemnation and ridicule of the press and public when Hayes is revealed to be sleeping with someone of Solène’s age.
The novel ends with Hayes’s last attempts to continue his relationship with Solène. Ultimately, Solène maintains her dedication to her choice despite her love for Hayes. After indulging in passionate sex with him for the last time, Solène remains steadfast in her choice to set Hayes free and to keep Isabelle safe. Solène, in recalling that Hayes feared she would not come to understand his real self, proclaims to have only fallen in love with “the idea of you” (371). Referencing the novel’s title gives Solène’s decision a sense of finality, as if the whole novel has been leading inexorably to this ending. In this way, Lee again plays with the idea of literature as a construct and the power of the author over the reader’s wishes. While Solène lies in this moment, she knows that “there was only one way to truly let him go” (371).
This moment concludes the novel’s theme Reality Versus Fantasy, in that reality is shown to be a world of imperfect compromise. Solène chooses her own path to move forward as an individual, rationalizing that she is “freeing” Hayes. But ultimately, Solène’s decision is a reaction to Isabelle’s continued struggles at school with teasing, sacrificing her relationship for the sake of her daughter. At the end, the novel’s major tension is between Solène’s personal life and her role as a mother. While Solène makes her own decision and her motivations are good, this ending combines her self-determinism with self-sacrifice, showing that these two apparently opposing forces can be mingled in the decisions peoples are obliged to make.
True to its genre, the novel offers the reader emotional consolation. The choice to end her relationship devastates Solène but offers her and Isabelle the opportunity to mend their relationship and grow closer. The novel’s repeated presentation of the difficulties and dangers for female teens—Penelope, the distressed girl in the corridor, the dangerous fandom—underscore the moral significance of Solène’s choice. Solène comments on Isabelle’s growth: “[S]he sounded so mature, so altered” (289), Solène’s pride contrasting her absence during Isabelle’s pivotal moment of growth in the first section. As Solène learns the transformative power of love to find strength in vulnerability and self-discovery, Isabelle matures and learns to empathize with her mother. Isabelle becomes Solène’s main source of comfort in the aftermath of her break-up and Isabelle learns to care for her mother as Solène cares for her. While Isabelle comforts her mother, Solène conveys to Isabelle the lesson she has learned through her relationship with Hayes; she urges Isabelle to allow herself to be open to love.
