The Last List of Mabel Beaumont

Analyze the structural effect of delaying the full revelation of Mabel and Dot’s kiss and Reg Bishop’s threat until the novel’s final section.

Examine how Mabel’s well-intentioned but chaotic meddling in the lives of her friends functions as an expression of her rediscovered agency. How do these actions serve as a projection of her desire to control a narrative after decades of passivity?

How do the personal histories of the women in the intergenerational found family serve as foils that illuminate different facets of Mabel’s suppressed past and push her toward self-confrontation?