Wish You Were Here

“My father told me that conservators do that, in case historians need to study the original composition. The only way you can tell how far you’ve come is to know where you started.”

This passage concludes the opening anecdote of the book where Diana and her father paint a ceiling together. It does three things: It establishes the close relationship that Diana has with her father; it signals that art of some kind will play an important role in the story; and it surmises the parabolic trajectory that the narrative takes over the course of the book.

“When I was young, and people asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I had a whole plan. […] My father had laughed at my checklist. You, he told me, are definitely your mother’s daughter. I did not take that as a compliment.”

In the protagonist’s own words, this passage gives readers a first look at the kind of person she appears to be—ambitious and meticulous. It also, however, hints at discord in the relationship that Diana has with her mother.

“When it became clear that my mother had dementia, Finn asked me what I was going to do. Nothing, I told him. She had barely been involved in taking care of me when I was young; why was I obligated to take care of her now? I remember seeing the look on his face when he realized that for me, maybe, love was a quid pro quo.”

Diana believes love to involve an equal exchange of sacrifices and compromises. The nature of love is a major theme that the book addresses, and the view of love that Diana expresses here will eventually evolve over the course of the book.