The Sweetness of Forgetting

Rose is a protagonist and the second point-of-view character in the novel. She is a less dynamic character than Hope, though she, too, goes through a character arc. She is one of Hope’s mentors who teaches her about love, though there is an irony to the lesson, since she lived most of her life married to a man whom she didn’t fully love.

Rose is a beautiful woman who was born in Paris to a Jewish family; her father, Albert Picard, was a doctor, and her mother, Cecile, came from Poland. She had three brothers and two sisters. When she was around 16, Rose met and immediately fell in love with Jacob Levy. They married in secret, and she became pregnant. Jacob learned of the roundups of Jewish people and urged Rose and her brother, Alain, to persuade their parents and escape. Rose could not convince her father to flee, so she left herself, and while she managed to protect her baby, she has felt guilty about the deaths of her family. Her character hence epitomizes Love and Self-Sacrifice, since she did what she could to protect her baby and those she loved.

She met Ted McKenna, an American pilot, at a refugee camp in Spain. He offered to marry her so that her child could be an American and he could protect them both. Rose, who thought that Jacob was dead, agreed to the marriage and starting a new life in the US, but part of her always longed to see her loved ones again. When she asked Ted to travel to France after the war to locate her family and Jacob, Ted returned with the news that they were all dead. Rose believed him and felt that her heart died that day. She agreed to move with Ted to Cape Cod and began the North Star bakery, where she made pastries from recipes she had learned from her mother’s Jewish tradition—her mother’s family ran a bakery as well—and from recipes she learned from the Muslim family she sheltered with briefly during the war. Her bakery highlights the need for bringing people together as an antidote to racism or religious intolerance.

Rose didn’t realize until later that, in shutting down her heart in her grief and loss, she had raised her daughter to seek love always but never feel that she had found it. Rose tried to repair this with Hope but saw Hope grow up guarded as well, married to a man she didn’t love. Rose grieves that her legacy has been a lack of love and she tries to remedy this at the end of her life. She realizes that her AD is progressing—she thinks of her memories as floating away on water—but as the memories of her past become more acute, she finally confronts and relieves the most emotional moments of her life. This highlights the power of Survival and the Persistence of Memory. Rose feels the need to speak about her life, including the family she has left invisible out of her guilt, even though they are Hope’s family, too. Her reunion with Alain and Jacob at the end is joyful, and in her last letter to Hope, Rose counsels her granddaughter not to make the same mistakes she did and try to hide from the past or love. Rose’s story provides a parallel to Hope’s as well as providing the plot devices of developing AD and a coma that drive the novel.

Annie Smith is Rose’s daughter. She is in middle school and doesn’t look like either of her parents, but she looks very much like Jacob Levy, which provides further evidence at the end that Josephine was Jacob’s daughter. Annie is an occasional antagonist for Hope, causing conflict through her rebelliousness and criticism of Hope’s actions and personality. Much of Annie’s attitude toward her mother stems from hurt that her father is pursuing a new romantic relationship and prioritizing Sunshine over Annie.

Annie’s antagonistic attitude toward Hope represents one more dimension of love that Hope is struggling to learn. However, when Hope stands up to Rob and demands that he act like a father to his daughter, Annie appreciates her protectiveness and begins to thaw. Annie’s relationship with Hope is a parallel to that of Hope and Josephine, and Josephine and Rose, suggesting that intergenerational trauma passes down through families and affects generations of mother/daughter relationships. Annie shows affection and care for Mamie, even when she is at her angriest, showing that she is at heart a kind person.

Alain Picard is a secondary character who serves as a mentor and support for Hope and a symbol of reconciliation and forgiveness for Rose. He was Rose’s favorite brother, and he shares her “slate-gray, slightly almond-shaped eyes” (136), which emphasizes the connection between them. Alain was 11 at the time of the Vel d’Hiv roundups and escaped by fleeing through a window. After the war, he met with returning survivors at the hotel, found Jacob, and learned that the rest of his family had been lost. Alain married a woman who survived Auschwitz. She was unable to bear children and died young, leaving him a widower for several decades.

Alain is a steady, kind man with a gentle sense of humor, a compassionate heart, and a deep sense of loyalty and honor. Alain embraces Hope as family as soon as he learns who she is. He comes to the US to see Rose, but he also helps Hope in ways that she would not accept from anyone else, such as assisting with housework, errands, or the bakery. Alain gives Hope advice about love that is later echoed by Gavin, and he endorses Gavin as a suitable romantic partner for her, despite the difference in ages. Alain returns to Paris after Rose dies, his role as mentor complete, but he remains part of the family and the legacy that Hope has reclaimed.