41 pages • 1 hour read
Raven LeilaniLuster
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Flâneur as Observer
A term notably used by French poet Charles Baudelaire ("The Albatross"), a flâneur is typically a male figure depicted as a wanderer who, separated from society, comments on contemporary life in an urban setting. Leilani positions Edie in this reimagining of the male flâneur as she roams the streets of New York City in isolation. Despite her job in the editing department of a children’s publisher, Edie does little work throughout the novel. Her work life is one filled with her various uninhibited sexual escapades, which lead to her dismissal. An artist, Edie returns to painting in Chapter 1 and attempts to recreate what she observes and experiences in her exploits to varying degrees of success. When living in Eric and Rebecca’s home, she observes closely the scenes of family life and attempts to recreate these scenes in acute detail.
Through such observations, Edie develops her craft and examines her own place in a lonely world. She carefully examines her subjects and their relationships with one another while simultaneously attempting to draw herself, a feat she is only able to accomplish near the end of the novel. Through this development as an artist, Edie investigates her past and its effect on her. She serves as a witness to her parents’ struggles to battle mental illness as Black Americans and her current attempts to navigate her own depression. As she roams in and out of the city, Edie chronicles what it means to be a Black woman today.
The Inheritance of Loneliness
The past serves a vital role in Edie’s development throughout the novel. Her mother’s death, her father’s abandonment, and her abortion at 16 haunt her and influence the impulsive choices she makes at the age of 23. The memory of discovering her mother’s body reemerges repeatedly in her art as she is compelled to paint the scene again and again. Her father’s neglect propels her into a relationship with an older man who impregnates her. Her abortion causes her to numb herself with promiscuity to evade the memory of the traumatic event. The past dominates Edie’s present actions, and she lacks the agency to change her ways. These memories serve as her inheritance. She takes time to detail the histories of unhappiness associated with the generations before her to outline the inheritance she has been bestowed as the daughter of her parents and as a Black woman in America.
This inheritance is one she also passes down to Akila. She recognizes Akila’s isolation as “that thing which is most hypervisible and invisible: black and alone” (99). After they survive their traumatic clash with law enforcement, Edie instructs Akila on the realities of their existence within a racist society and reflects on her own understanding of this unwelcome inheritance at a young age and how she “had to find it out for myself” (216). Through her experiences as a mentor and parental figure for Akila, Edie grows in her own acceptance of her inherited loneliness. She comes to realize that “there will always be a part of me that is ready to die” (217).
Reality Versus Fantasy
Luster mixes the past and present as it chronicles Edie’s meandering through New York City. She is thrust back into the past and forward into the present, which further isolates Edie from those around her. She indulges in graphic sexual fantasies that at times manifest in impulsive dalliances with random men. She masturbates at work and, in her mind, relives the sexual escapades that ultimately lead to her termination. As an artist, she struggles to convey her subjects accurately. She repeatedly attempts to hone her craft by creating still life after still life. Her reality is tinted by her past traumatic experiences and her dramatic interpretations of potential futures. She escapes from the present to avoid the heavy realities of her life.
She envisions a future with Eric and wanders around what she believes to be his empty home until she is confronted by Rebecca, his wife. Here, her fantasy collides with the reality of his tense marriage. This tension requires Edie to consider the consequences of her impulsive actions, a task she struggles with throughout the novel. Upon meeting Akila for the first time at Eric and Rebecca’s anniversary party, Edie remarks, “You’re real,” as she previously questioned whether the child was a figment of her imagination. Edie dwells so strongly in fantasy that she questions what is reality and what is fantasy. Through her relationship with Akila, Edie confronts the realities of her lonely existence in White spaces to support Akila through her own development. Her experiences with Akila and Rebecca’s care begin to root Edie in the present. She begins to see a path forward to the future. Reconnected with painting, she develops the ability to make reality her art.
