56 pages • 1 hour read
Naima CosterWhat's Mine and Yours
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “September 2018”
Nelson is finishing up a series of photographs for a book called Paris in Black and Brown. He is due to go home in two days, but his publisher wants him to stay a little longer in order to provide photographs for a playwright’s new production. Nelson knows he needs to go home because things are difficult between him and Noelle. In fact, he’s in Paris alone to put space between them. He’s purposely ignored her calls, but she hasn’t tried to call in a few days.
Nelson and Jemima, the junior publicist assigned to him, are having an affair. This isn’t the first time Nelson has cheated on Noelle. He cheats when he travels because he feels unmoored without Noelle. They were together in college, and he went on road trips with Noelle to avoid home during school vacations; that’s when he began taking photographs. After college, they were both ambitious: He worked on his photography, and she worked as a theater director. Noelle gave up her career when they moved to Atlanta; after her miscarriage, she became locked down in her emotions. Nelson feels as though she’s dragging him down to a place he doesn’t want to go. When he finally calls Noelle, it is Lacey May who answers the phone. Lacey May expresses distaste for Nelson; she mentions that his mother called her, and that she’s sad she won’t live to meet her grandchildren: “I’d have loved them like crazy, if you can believe that. Even after everything. Even if I never wanted Noelle’s life to go this way” (144).
Chapter 8 Summary: “September 2018”
Margarita lives in Los Angeles, surviving from one small acting job to the next. On this day, she has a commercial, but when it’s over she learns that she won’t be getting the money in time to get caught up on her rent. Margarita goes to her friend Celeste’s house, where they make a cooking video and post it to their social media. Aware that she is about to get kicked out of her apartment, Margarita asks to move in with Celeste, but Celeste refuses, claiming her parents would stop paying her rent if she allowed someone to move in. Aware that Margarita is short on money, Celeste still insists that they go out. Margarita agrees, deciding she has nothing left to lose. In the morning, she wakes and finds Celeste asleep with vomit on her mouth. She takes a video of her and posts it on social media out of a sense of outrage that Celeste wouldn’t help her, and out of jealousy because Celeste has more followers on social media. Margarita calls her father, Robbie, and asks for the money to fly home to visit her mother. Margarita puts her belongings in storage, hoping she’ll be able to find a better apartment later.
Chapter 9 Summary: “September 2018”
Diane runs a doggie day camp called Paws & Friends with her roommate and lover, Alma. None of Diane’s family know she is a lesbian or involved with Alma, so things have been difficult since Noelle’s arrival. A customer makes Diane uncomfortable by bringing up Lacey May’s protests against the integration of the public schools in the county. Diane has managed to distance herself from the past, but having Noelle home is bringing it back.
Diane and Alma take Noelle out to dinner. They talk about how the neighborhood has gotten “whiter,” and Noelle offends Alma with a comment about not being able to picture “[her] living in the suburbs” (170). Diane accuses Noelle of being similar to Lacey May, and Noelle says she didn’t intend to be offensive. They discuss Nelson; Noelle admits she’s stopped trying to reach him, but backtracks and insists they’ll work things out. Later, Diane apologizes to Alma on Noelle’s behalf. They discuss their relationship status, and Diane explains that she cannot tell her family that they are lovers: “They have no idea who I am. And they like it better that way. […] My mother still hates Nelson. And he’s a man” (173-74). The following day, Diane and Noelle pick Margarita up from the airport. They go to visit Lacey May, where they quickly fall into old patterns of bickering. Lacey May stresses that her condition is potentially fatal and asks the girls to find Robbie. At the same time, Alma pushes Diane to tell her family the truth.
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
These chapters primarily focus on The Struggle to Understand One’s Identity, offering snapshots into the lives of characters that, while tied to Lacey May, Jade, and the others, have not yet had the chance to be heard. The introduction of Nelson’s perspective adds fuel to the idea that Noelle’s marriage is in trouble. Nelson is a complicated character who is clearly struggling with sharing his true self with the woman he loves. There are several points in which Nelson looks back on his life with Noelle with nostalgia and affection, yet he holds himself away from her. His irritation at her emotional reaction to the miscarriage is concerning, and his habit of turning to women in moments of stress reaches back to earlier chapters: Robbie did the same, but more notably, so did Gee. This is the first sign of Nelson’s connection to Gee.
These hints continue when Nelson calls Noelle’s phone and is connected to Lacey May instead. Lacey May’s reaction to Nelson is instant vitriol, illustrating a relationship that never got off the ground. This is a subtle callback to Lacey May’s immediate clash with Jade at the school meeting. When Lacey May says, “My prodigal son-in-law. Is he coming home now? Does he expect a fatted calf?” (144), it is clear there is no love lost between her and Nelson, though it is not yet clear why. Lacey May seems to think Nelson is not the husband Noelle deserves; Nelson, however, blames her hatred of him on her racism. This is part of the shifting timeline: Coster will only reveal the objective truth of the relationship between the three through bits and pieces spread across the various narratives.
The introduction of Margarita as an adult is both humorous and sad. Coster sets up multiple comparisons within the novel, such as the different childrearing styles among multiple mothers, in order to explore her characters and themes: in Margarita’s case, Coster draws comparisons between her and her father, Robbie. Margarita is a typical modern woman with aspirations to become famous. Like Robbie, she is filled with big dreams but struggles to reach them. While Margarita’s life appears glamorous on social media, in reality she is struggling to pay the bills, and she goes out partying and uses drugs instead of prioritizing her financial stability. Margarita, however, has not gone down the rabbit hole as far as Robbie at this point; ironically, she turns to him for rescue even though he is struggling just as much as she is. There is clearly a complicated relationship between Margarita and her father that plays a large role in her adult life.
In Chapter 9, the baby of the Ventura family is introduced again, but as an adult. Diane is the one who was the peacemaker, the one who stepped between family members when they fought. This is the role Diane continues to play as an adult, bringing her sisters home to see their mother as she faces a potentially fatal illness, despite her sisters’ reluctance to reunite. However, Diane, too, struggles with her identity; aware of her mother’s prejudices, she keeps her sexuality a secret from her family, which takes a toll on her relationship with her girlfriend. Alma accuses Diane of preferring to stay closeted, and she is clearly deeply hurt by Diane’s refusal to be honest about their relationship. Their friction has similar undertones to Noelle and Inéz’s argument in Chapter 3, in which Inéz accused Noelle of failing to stand up against the racial prejudices of her neighbors.
Diane’s choice to work with dogs is an interesting fact considering she was nearly attacked by a dog as a child. The moment was a significant one for Hank as it proved his worth as a protector and provider to Lacey May. It appears it was also significant to Diane as she chooses to make dogs her life’s calling. This is one of a few examples of Strong Women Fighting for Their Futures that is not grounded in violence or tragedy. Between the gesture of Hank saving her and the family dog, Jenkins, Diane didn’t develop a debilitating fear, but an everlasting love that has become her passion. This sets her apart from the other strong women in the novel, such as Jade, whose life trajectory was forever changed by violence.
