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Chapter 59-Bonus EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, and sexual content.
Chapter 59 Summary: “Canon”
As he brings Neevah to his house, Canon reflects again on dealing with his mother’s illness and the grief of her death. He feels frustrated and helpless to see Neevah so vulnerable. He senses that she’s being guarded with him and decides, “I want her however she comes. She’s worth all of the gambles with no guarantees” (362).
Neevah takes a bath, and Canon confronts her about why she is being distant with him. As he shaves her legs, he tells her that he wants her unconditionally. Neevah challenges him, exposing her rash and bald spots, and he confirms that the light he sees in her is still there: “If anything, this fight she’s in, what it requires of her, is the filament to make her shine even brighter” (368). They have sex, and Canon realizes that his mother has gotten her wish: He’s found someone he loves more than his art. He tells Neevah that he loves her, and she says that she loves him back.
Chapter 60 Summary: “Neevah”
Neevah reflects on how her aspirations have “gone from winning a Tony to living to see [her] next birthday” (374). She’s overjoyed that Canon loves her. She struggles with her symptoms and knows that she needs to call Terry. She finds Canon in his home movie theater and watches bits of Dessi Blue with him. Neevah is impressed by what they’ve created and how it honors the talented Black artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Canon is convinced that everyone watching the movie will see Neevah’s light.
Canon shows Neevah his mother’s cameras and asks to take pictures of her. She is reluctant to let herself be seen in such a fragile state. When she is overwhelmed with another bout of nausea, Canon insists on taking her to the emergency room. Neevah says that she wants her mother.
Chapter 61 Summary: “Canon”
Canon calls Neevah’s mother and offers to fly her out to California on the studio’s private jet. Mrs. Mathis asks to bring Terry. When Canon recalls how he once said in New York that “[s]tory must be protected, at all costs” (384), he was being naïve; now, nothing matters to him more than Neevah. When Canon goes to her hospital room, Neevah asks him to hold her. She says that she’ll get back up, but for a moment, she just wants to fall.
Chapter 62 Summary: “Neevah”
Neevah is grateful to see her mother but feels wary when Terry enters. The sisters spar, and Terry reveals her resentment that Neevah left, went to New York, and led an exciting life following her dreams. Canon and Dr. Okafor ask the sisters to put the resentment aside and start testing Terry as a possible donor.
Chapter 63 Summary: “Neevah”
Neevah pushes Canon out the door to go to a production meeting. She wants to finish the movie to revive its lost history and honor the effort the cast and crew have put into making it. She thinks, “We have the chance to restore, to amplify people and events that have too long been overlooked, and my damn kidneys are not going to ruin that because the director cannot focus on anything other than his sick girlfriend” (395).
Her mother stays with Neevah during dialysis, and Terry enters with her knitting. Neevah and Terry fight as Neevah reminds Terry of her betrayal. Terry says that Quianna is like Neevah and loves to sing. Terry admits that she was jealous that Brandon liked Neevah, so Terry wanted to prove that she could get him. She admits that it was petty and that she feels like she paid for it. Neevah thinks that if she’s hooked up to a machine that is cleaning her blood, maybe there is a way for her and Terry to cleanse the bad blood between them.
Chapter 64 Summary: “Neevah”
Neevah and Takira enjoy some time together and watch TV. Neevah sees Camille in a hair commercial and feels a pang of envy. Then, they see a clip on an entertainment show with Neevah acting as Dessi. Neevah recalls Canon’s documentary about his mother, Remy Holt, and decides to watch it. Remy reminds the viewer that one’s body is not what matters; one’s legacy is something else. Neevah is inspired by the way Remy seemed to become more fearless as her illness worsened. Neevah is willing for Canon to photograph her.
Chapter 65 Summary: “Canon”
Neevah learns that Terry is a match for a donor. Canon decides to come with her to North Carolina for her surgery and recovery. He feels like his priorities have shifted and believes that Neevah, not Dessi Blue, is now first in his life.
Chapter 66 Summary: “Dessi Blue”
In an excerpt from the film script, the setting is Cal and Dessi’s Paris apartment, 1956. Dessi bids her daughter, Katherine, good night. Dessi tells Cal that her mother is sick and that she wants to return home to be with her. Cal reminds Dessi that they are better off in Europe, sharing the examples of Sidney Bechet and Josephine Baker. Dessi thinks that they might be able to help with the protests against racial segregation. She tells Cal, “When your people need you, you go” (416).
Chapter 67 Summary: “Neevah”
Neevah visits the hospital room where Terry is being prepped for the surgery to remove a kidney. Terry admits that she’s been ashamed of what she did, saying that she “was young and stupid and insecure and jealous” because she liked Brandon (420). Neevah reflects that what she had with Brandon wouldn’t have lasted, but it was losing the relationship with her sister, and the chance to know Quianna, that hurt her. Terry asks for Neevah’s forgiveness, and Neevah grants it.
Their mother returns and joins the hug, along with Quianna. Brandon enters the room, and Neevah realizes that all she feels about him is hope that he really loves her sister. She goes to her own room to be prepped for the transplant.
Chapter 68 Summary: “Canon”
Canon enters his house and hears Neevah’s laughter from upstairs. He approaches to find her on a video call with Quianna, who wants to visit that summer. Neevah is recovering well from surgery, and her symptoms of lupus are fading. She tells Canon that the doctor has cleared her for sexual activity, and as Canon removes her clothes and sees her scar, he feels that they share true intimacy.
Chapter 69 Summary: “Neevah”
Canon suggests making a documentary out of the footage he’s taken documenting Neevah’s journey with lupus. Neevah watches snippets and sees herself telling the camera that she has lupus but it does not have her. She is moved by footage of Canon talking about how he loves Neevah. As he holds her, he traces the tattoo she got when she was 18, recalling the quote from the play Our Town: “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute? Saints and poets maybe” (435). Canon suggests that they screen the documentary at Cannes and make a family vacation of it. Neevah reflects on how their love is like nothing she could have imagined, “[t]hat forever kind of love” (437). Canon says that in Neevah, he’s found his miracle.
Epilogue Summary: “2004—Dessi Blue”
This chapter is not an excerpt from the screenplay but part of the narrative told from Dessi’s point of view as she regards the roadside sign erected to honor her life. She reflects on how she never again saw Tilda but was happy in her life with Cal. She was able to be with her mother before she died, and they stayed to take part in the civil rights movement in Alabama.
Dessi recalls how Dorothy Dandrige said once, “If I were white, I could capture the world” (440). Dessi reflects on how many barriers have come down in her lifetime, and she is proud of her part in it. She thinks, “Home is not a song, and it’s not a place. It’s people. It’s community” (441). Even though she didn’t achieve great fame, she is glad that this sign exists to tell her story.
Bonus Epilogue Summary: “Neevah”
Canon hovers protectively while he, Neevah, and others answer questions as part of a press junket for Dessi Blue. The reporter asks about Neevah’s relationship with Canon, and Canon answers that he is proud of her and hopes that people will see and respect Neevah as an artist in her own right. Neevah speaks to others who have lupus, reminding them that they can live their lives to the fullest: “Nothing and no one can take away our capacity for love” (447).
Takira does Neevah’s hair and makeup for the premiere of Dessi Blue. Canon asks if they can leave the party early to be together.
Canon reflects on how meeting Neevah brought him true love. He and Neevah leave the party, and he takes her to the Galaxy Studios back lot, where he has a table placed in the set of the Savoy. There is a ring in the bottom of Neevah’s champagne glass. Neevah says “yes” before Canon can finish his proposal. They kiss through their combined tears.
Chapter 59-Bonus Epilogue Analysis
Instead of making Neevah’s illness the focus of the climax and resolution, the novel focuses on the progress of her relationships with the most important people in her life and how she successfully confronts The Challenges of Preserving Personal and Artistic Integrity. This shows that she is not defined by her illness, a theme that is later echoed by the documentary that Canon proposes making about her experience of lupus. Neevah’s experience with lupus becomes another story that Canon believes is worth telling, one that puts Neevah in parallel with his mother, who had multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system. Revisiting The Magic Hour, Canon’s documentary about his mother, shows that Neevah has her own relationship with Remy Holt, drawing inspiration and life advice from her. This advice to live life to the fullest, no matter what, rings through the concluding chapters of the novel as well as the Bonus Epilogue included in the Forever paperback edition.
The Bonus Epilogue gives readers a peek at the future of Canon and Neevah’s relationship, showing them making a commitment to marriage while revisiting a set from their movie. The reconstructed Savoy provides a symbol of their artistic endeavors and the creative energy they are part of, and it also stands in for the project that brought them together. Showing the protagonists at the premiere of the movie and doing press for the release confirms that Dessi Blue, like Neevah’s recovery and her relationship with Canon, is a success. The press interview also gives the novel a way to reiterate the belief that actors and performers ought to be judged by the quality of their work and not by their personal lives.
Dessi Blue’s story takes on its own resonance in this section, dwelling on the broader questions of personal obligation and legacy and highlighting The Importance of Recognizing and Celebrating Black Artists. Dessi’s feeling that she needs to be near her mother during her time of illness reflects how Neevah wants her own mother during her illness, but the screenplay and the Epilogue also show that Dessi’s contributions to her world are not just through her art or her daughter but also through her participation in the civil rights movement. While Cal would prefer escaping the situation entirely and staying in Europe, where their talents are appreciated, Dessi wants to join the fight for equality. This part of her contribution adds emotional weight to the novel and forays further into historical territory. In making Dessi’s civil rights advocacy part of her story, the novel suggests that this part of history also needs to be remembered, celebrated, and retold.
While Neevah’s romance with Canon is deepened in these closing chapters, the repair of her relationship with her family, and especially Terry, becomes the climax and turning point of the story and her character arc, bringing closure to the theme of The Benefits of Healing and Reconciliation. While her dialysis provides a metaphor for purging the bad blood between them, the kidney that Terry donates to Neevah is a literal way that the sisters are reknit together and their relationship is healed. Terry’s new hobby of knitting provides another image indicating that Terry, too, might be willing to mend things between them.
Terry is revealed not as the villain of the story but as a vulnerable young woman who acted out of selfishness and hurt, much as Camille did in attacking Canon and then Neevah. In attempting to move on and make the best of her circumstances by healing her marriage, reconnecting with Neevah, and supporting Quianna’s relationship with Neevah, Terry also models Remy’s advice of trying to live life to the fullest. Neevah’s ability to forgive Terry and her gratitude at having her sister back mark an emotional turning point in their storyline, suggesting an emotional healing that foreshadows Neevah’s physical recovery.
Camille appears briefly as a foil to Neevah, an example of a healthy woman who once attracted Canon and provokes a moment of self-doubt for Neevah. However, Neevah’s self-esteem is strong enough that she looks for the supports that will help her, including her friendship with Takira. Coming to peace with herself is the happy ending for Neevah’s own character arc, which is less about her career—the ambition that motivated her in the beginning—and more about enjoying her life. The realization that Neevah took the stage name “Saint” as an echo of the line from Our Town that inspires her underlines this broader theme about relishing life. To paraphrase the play, if she is not a poet, then Neevah wants to be a saint: someone who tries to be aware of the gifts of her life every minute. This ambition underscores the novel’s broader point that people experiencing chronic illness can still enjoy life, love, and happiness to the fullest extent possible.
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