58 pages • 1 hour read
Josie SilverOne Day in December
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A 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 22-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Section 7 Summary: “New Year’s Resolutions-March 10, 2012”
Another New Year means another set of resolutions for Laurie. This time, Laurie decides to set her sights again on getting a job in magazines and finding a way in keep Oscar in her life back in England. Laurie and Oscar decide to stay together and return to England, a different context for their relationship. Before meeting Oscar’s mother, Laurie thinks, “Everything seemed far simpler in Thailand […]. Here among the trappings of our usual lives, our differences seem more stark” (137). Oscar’s background is one of wealth but also strife within his family due to an abusive father. When Laurie meets his mother, she is struck by her formality and feels judged for her own working-class background.
Despite their differences, Oscar and Laurie’s relationship grows in England. Laurie is happy to finally be in a relationship: “At last there is a ‘we’. And it’s amazing. I’ve never felt this wanted or cared for in my life” (140). Oscar wants her to move in with him in London, but Laurie has decided to stay at her parents’ house in the suburbs while she applies for jobs in magazines, knowing that any other job to pay the bills while she is searching for her dream job will set her back. Laurie is determined to make strong, rational decisions for herself. Although Oscar is wealthy and generous, Laurie wants to remain independent.
Meanwhile, Jack and Sarah are facing a bump in their relationship. Both are negotiating their time together with their new jobs, and they snap at each other more than usual. When Jack and Sarah go to Oscar’s club to meet him for the first time, the reunion between friends is more complicated than anticipated. When Laurie sees Jack for the first time in months, “He looks right into my eyes, no shifty gazing off over my shoulder, and for a moment I’m knocked off-center by that aching, familiar longing. Old habits die hard, it would seem” (146). Sarah is besotted by Oscar while Jack is rude, intimidated by or jealous of Oscar’s status. Sarah confides in Laurie, admitting Jack’s recent distance from her. Jack acts rudely to Oscar and his hospitality, but Oscar tries to take his derision in stride. Laurie confronts Jack about his attitude towards Oscar, and Jack realizes, “Laurie has grown up when I wasn’t looking. It’s time for me to do the same” (158).
Section 8 Summary: “May 14, 2012-June 9, 2012”
Laurie’s life starts to turn around when a magazine hires her to give teenagers advice on make-up and skin care, and Sarah is thrilled for her. Things seem to be falling into place for Laurie for the first time in a long while. Oscar showers her with gifts for her birthday and gives her keys to his apartment—a temporary living situation while Laurie starts over in the city. Laurie looks at the keys and sees “the huge set of expectations that come with it and I falter, wondering if I’m doing the wrong thing. We’ve only been together for eight months, after all, and I’ve always been determined to do this my own way” (163).
Chapter 27 Summary: “August 4”
Laurie and Oscar plan a dinner party at the flat, but Jack tries to avoid it. Laurie is eager to please Oscar’s brother and sister-in-law, Gerry and Fliss, and works hard cooking for her grown-up dinner. Sarah arrives without Jack, and as the night progresses and Jack doesn’t show up or text and call, Sarah gets more aggravated. Gerry is kind, and Fliss is difficult, but Oscar and Laurie try to make Sarah feel more comfortable. Finally, Sarah’s phone rings, and there is a message. It is a stranger who has picked up Jack’s phone and called the number looking for a friend. Jack has been in an accident.
Chapters 22-27 Analysis
Back from her big adventure abroad, Laurie’s character development has developed in a paradoxical way: On the one hand, her life really has changed for the better. On the other hand, coming back from falling for someone else in a different country introduces complications within the context of her life back in England. In Thailand, the differences between her and Oscar didn’t seem important, but in England they come to the forefront of their lived experience. Even though Laurie feels uncomfortable with the class difference, Oscar is generous and kind to her—his affections for her haven’t changed, but her confidence in their relationship is challenged. There is a moment of foreshadowing when, in introducing Laurie to his guarded mother, “I realize that I should have read more into the fact that he called me Laurel rather than Laurie” (138). Small hints such as these signal to the reader that Oscar will not work out for Laurie. Laurie is also falling back into old feelings for Jack. While her feelings for Jack do not detract from her feelings for Oliver, she is nonetheless still deeply connected to Jack.
Jack and Sarah are facing a rut following Sarah’s leaving her first apartment with Laurie. Sarah and Jack both have new jobs in the media-journalism industry, jobs that have them working hard and spending many hours apart. Individually, their lives are headed in the direction they desire, but together they can’t quite fit into the relationship they want from one another. It is notable that this distance Sarah is noticing happens after Jack kisses Laurie, another structural foreshadowing from Silver that Sarah and Jack are perhaps not as compatible as Jack and Laurie could be.
In Laurie’s mind, everyone around her is changing and growing. She describes Jack and Sarah as seeming quite grown-up, and Jack has the same thought about her. Yet again, both she and Jack interpret each other in generous and kind ways, but neither has the opportunity or the courage to really say what’s on their mind to the other. Instead, Jack lashes out at Oscar, triggered by his ostentatious wealth and his presence beside Laurie. Physically, the two men are opposites, and the way Laurie analyzes Oscar’s look is markedly different than the comfort she derived from analyzing Jack’s looks. Laurie is constantly surprised to still find herself in the relationship with Oscar, noting that he is too gorgeous for her or that they are too different or that only a year ago she was madly in love with Jack.
That returning home has introduced its own complications is no surprise within the progression of plot in this novel. Even while in a happy, sunny place, Laurie was making comments that foreshadowed complexities and darkness awaiting her in England. Still, Laurie is characteristically committed to her New Year’s resolutions. She finally gets a job working for a magazine, a major step in her new life. With her commitment to making her life better comes a parallel desire for independence, but Oscar wants her to move in with him. While Laurie is not yet torn between Oscar and her independence, Silver foreshadows the issue approaching.
Chapter 27 ends with a shocking twist: Jack has been in an accident. The crescendo of tension brewing between Jack and the people around him comes to a climax with this accident—a symbolic moment of finally being forced to stop for a man who is constantly stressed by running forward.
