46 pages • 1 hour read
Taylor Jenkins ReidMaybe in Another Life
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015A 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
The Impact of a Single Decision
Throughout the alternating storylines, Hannah often finds herself preoccupied with the notion of divine timing and fate. The structure of the novel reflects its exploration of destiny and the powerful impact that a single decision can have on a person’s life. In the romance genre, timing, coincidence, and chance are important narratives elements that bring potential love interests together. The question remains for Hannah whether each outcome that developed from her initial decision (with whom to leave the party) resulted in a chain of inevitable events, or if each storyline could have had a number of equally viable outcomes.
Readers first encounter the novel’s suggestion that a single decision can have major influence on the trajectory of a person’s life when, following her homecoming party, Hannah must decide to either go home with her high school sweetheart, Ethan, or her best friend, Gabby. That the novel presents two parallel storylines in which the consequences of Hannah’s decision that night unfold for the rest of the narrative suggests that even a seemingly unremarkable decision can have a significant impact on the course of one’s life.
In the chapter that precedes the alternating storylines, Hannah reflects that “life is long and full of an infinite number of decisions,” and that “I have to think that the small ones don’t matter, that I’ll end up where I need to be no matter what I do” (35). However, the subsequent storylines—that Hannah’s decision that night either lands her in the hospital or enables her to follow through with an unexpected pregnancy, respectively—seem to suggest even the small decisions do matter.
Though she eventually recognizes that to some extent a single decision can majorly impact the course of events, Hannah much prefers to believe in the power of fate, deciding that “questioning every decision I’ve ever made” is simply “too chaotic to handle” (230).
It is much later in the novel that Hannah recognizes the weight that even one decision can carry. Watching Mark pack up his things and move out of his home with Gabby makes her realize that “we make choices, big and small, every day of our lives, and those choices have consequences” (270). This realization is so significant that it occurs twice in the text (for the second time in the next chapter), with no difference in the prose. That it appears twice indicates two things: Firstly, that regardless of the choice she made on the night of her homecoming party, Hannah would have eventually come to this realization anyway. Secondly, the inclusion of these identical passages in two adjacent chapters conveys the thematic weight of this concept in the narrative.
Feeling Adrift and Lacking Purpose
Hannah has spent most of her adult life feeling purposeless and generally lost. She has spent her twenties moving from city to city and job to job, trying to plant roots and establish a career. Early in the novel, she admits her fear that “I will never do anything of value with my life” (9). The fear of making the wrong choice and wasting time coupled with Hannah’s general lack of purpose ultimately keep her from living a life in which she feels happy and fulfilled. By the time she returns to her hometown of LA, Hannah has “no idea what I want to do with my life, no idea what my purpose is, and no real sign of a life goal” (22).
Hannah’s past of being separated from her family at a young age has given her a sense of rootlessness: With her parents and sister on another continent, Hannah has not had the sense of security that comes with having a home base. Gabby’s family, the Hudsons, became that homebase when Hannah was younger, but as an adult, Hannah has struggled to find somewhere—and someone—that feels like home.
Hannah begins to discover purpose as the two storylines unfold. Part of that purpose is to stay by Gabby’s side and help her through her divorce: Helping her best friend work through the pain and grief of the separation, Hannah finally feels that “maybe I have more of a life’s purpose than I ever thought” (202). In the alternate storyline, Hannah remains Gabby’s main support system; knowing that simply being with Gabby is helpful during such a challenging time, Hannah decides that “if I have taken away even a fraction of her pain, then I have more purpose than I have ever known” (279). That this realization occurs for Hannah in both storylines suggests that she has made progress since the beginning of the novel in finding her purpose and discovering what she values and where she belongs.
By the end of the novel, Hannah recognizes herself as “a woman who has been desperately looking for purpose and family, and I found both” (291). Both storylines empower Hannah to come into her own, as they allow her to realize her passions, which include becoming a mother and helping others. Just as she has an unconventional relationship with her birth family, she builds an unconventional—though no less loving—family with Ethan when they decide to raise Gabriella, who is Michael’s biological daughter. Hannah discovers that her support network does not need to be traditional to give her a sense of belonging, providing that support for others is part of her purpose.
The Existence of Soul Mates
The concept of soul mates is regularly discussed throughout the novel. Hannah spends much of her adult life after high school living under the assumption that her high school sweetheart, Ethan, is the person with whom she is meant to be. When she first moves back to LA, she reflects on her “sense that we haven’t followed through on our plan” (26). Whether or not Ethan truly is her soul mate is complicated by the novel’s inclusion of another storyline, in which Hannah ends up with Henry. Though both men become important parts of Hannah’s life in both storylines, the question of whether a soul mate must be a romantic partner or if one can also be a friend is raised but not decisively answered.
The question of when one meets their soul mate arises in the novel as well. In one storyline, both Hannah and Gabby end up with someone they have known since childhood, which implies that connections between soul mates are forged early and are lifelong. However, in the second timeline, Hannah marries Henry, whom she meets as an adult. This plot implies that one’s soul mate is out there somewhere, waiting to be found, and that one will meet them at the right moment. Reid does not hint at whether one version of the soul mate is more authentic than the other, or if we are even destined to meet the person who is our soul mate. As the novel has a happy ending, though, the tone is hopeful that if we have faith in ourselves, friends, and family, we will find the right person in the end.
Both Hannah and Gabby begin the novel in relationships with someone who is not their soul mate. Michael is a married man, and Hannah does not even consider that someone who lied to her is destined to be with her forever. In both storylines, Mark has an affair, forcing Gabby to confront the reality of their relationship. Gabby believes that soul mates do exist, and she thought that Mark must be her soul mate given their longstanding relationship. Additionally, she argues that “if you can’t make it work, you aren’t soul mates” (208). Hannah agrees, believing that “if you believe in fate, if you believe something is pushing you toward your destiny, that would include the person you’re supposed to be with” (208).
This reasoning comes into play later, when Hannah reveals to Ethan that she is pregnant with Michael’s child. Questioning whether or not they would be able to work as a couple given the circumstances, Hannah employs Gabby’s reasoning regarding soul mates, telling Ethan that “if you and I come to a place we can’t get past, then we aren’t meant to be” (230). When they eventually break up, Hannah, still hopeful about their potential as a couple, concludes that perhaps “this is the middle of a longer story,” and that their journey has yet to come to an end (255). Similarly, Gabby stays hopeful about the possibility of having a soul mate when she files for divorce, reasoning that “if I’m not his soul mate, then he’s not mine,” and that “there’s someone else out there for me” (288). Hannah and Gabby’s shared beliefs on the validity of soul mates empower them to believe that someday, sooner or later, they will both be with the people they need and deserve.
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