44 pages • 1-hour read
The Lonely Hearts Book Club
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Parts 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5: “Arthur” - Part 6: “Sloane”
Part 5, Chapter 28 Summary
Arthur McLachlan sees his life as a story. He was born in Coeur d’Alene, but the city has changed over the years. His childhood wasn’t happy, but he doesn’t blame his mother because life in Coeur d’Alene was harder then. He doubts the younger book club members fully understand. The way they interpret The Joy Luck Club and The Remains of the Day reflects their lack of understanding.
Sloane arrives and interrupts Arthur’s thoughts. He realizes how much his life has changed since he met her. He asks her about what they should read for their next book. He wants a more serious story, but Sloane doesn’t like his suggestions. She then informs him they’re going to have someone new joining their meeting today. Arthur doesn’t like that she’s turned his house into a playground, but he’s secretly grown attached to the group.
Arthur gets upset when he discovers that the visitor is Nigel Carthage. He tells Nigel that he’s never been a friend and wants him to leave. However, Arthur also knows that he’s been powerless ever since he and Greg talked about Greg’s mother, Hannah.
Nigel explains that he wants to join Arthur’s book club. Arthur doesn’t understand why but tells Nigel that they’re currently selecting their next title. When Sloane suggests Anne of Green Gables, Arthur launches into a monologue about the silliness of the book. Sloane’s deflated response makes Arthur realize he’s offended her. Since they met, Sloane has reminded Arthur of his late wife. She doesn’t back down to Arthur and defends her choice. Then Nigel interjects, revealing that Anne of Green Gables is Arthur’s favorite book.
Nigel corners Arthur in the hallway. He apologies for surprising him, but Arthur doesn’t soften. He gets even more upset when Nigel expresses his condolences about Eugenia’s and Hannah’s deaths. Nigel remains calm, and eventually Arthur agrees to let him into the club.
Part 5, Chapter 29 Summary
Arthur and Maisey go to the hospital. Arthur asks for the names of the nurses he threw out earlier in the novel so he can apologize and compensate them for their losses. He tells the nurse that Mateo is his new nurse, and she suggests giving Mateo a job application. Afterward, Arthur tells Maisey he thinks Mateo should be a performer, not a nurse or librarian.
Maisey drives Arthur to Nigel’s house without warning. She encourages Arthur to consider Nigel’s loneliness. Arthur feigns fatigue and demands that Maisey take him home.
Part 5, Chapter 30 Summary
Arthur agrees to attend a dinner with Sloane, her fiancé, Brett, and his family. He disapproves of Brett more and more throughout the evening. Brett’s sister alludes to Sloane leaving town, and Arthur gets upset. Sloane explains that Brett was offered a job on the East Coast, and they’re planning to move in the next few months. Arthur starts to panic, and Sloane comforts him. She reveals that Brett thinks he is inventing his symptoms to get Sloane’s attention. Arthur can’t process what he’s hearing and asks for a ride home. Sloane drives him, and they continue to discuss Sloane’s future on the way. Arthur thinks about his wife and daughter left him, too, and realizes how many mistakes he’s made.
Part 5, Chapter 31 Summary
Arthur invites Nigel over to talk. He explains what’s happening with Sloane and his fear of losing her. Nigel understands that Arthur is comparing Sloane to Eugenia. Years ago, Nigel was in love with Eugenia and offered her a new life with him on the East Coast. Eugenia accepted the offer and left Arthur. Sometime later, Arthur sent Eugenia a copy of Anne of Green Gables with highlighted passages to convey his love for her. Nigel thinks he could do the same to convey his friendship to Sloane.
Greg enters, and the men explain what’s going on. They inform Greg what happened between them and his grandmother years prior. Greg agrees that Arthur could convince Sloane to stay the way he convinced Eugenia to come back if he gives her a highlighted copy of Anne of Green Gables, too.
Part 5, Chapter 32 Summary
Arthur, Nigel, and Greg work on their project for Sloane. They buy “a brand-new hardback copy of Anne of Green Gables” and start highlighting important passages that convey their love for Sloane (317). Maisey comes over and joins in. She reveals that Bella is coming to live with her again. She got into a fight with her dad and wants to come back to Idaho. Arthur assures Maisey that she’s been a good mother. The friends resume their project and contact Mateo about joining.
The friends work and talk together after Mateo arrives. During their conversation, Arthur learns about Sloane’s sister’s death. He feels guilty that he didn’t realize sooner. He then gives Mateo the nursing application. He suggests that Mateo take the job and pursue his singing career in the meantime. He also encourages Mateo to rethink his relationship with his mother. Mateo accepts Arthur’s advice and gives him advice of his own. He reveals that Nigel is dying and encourages the men to make amends. Nigel affirms Mateo’s conjecture about his health. Arthur feels himself swaying and collapses.
Part 6, Chapter 33 Summary
Sloane and Brett research places to move in the Boston area. Sloane gets a call from the hospital about Arthur. Brett doesn’t want her to rush to his aid because they’re busy. However, Sloane insists that she’s going to the hospital because Arthur is her friend.
Part 6, Chapter 34 Summary
Brett drives Sloane to the hospital. Outside, Brett asks Sloane if she’s sure about marrying him. Sloane admits that she doesn’t love him and apologizes. Brett expresses his feelings for Sloane and admits that she’s changed since meeting Arthur and starting her book club. The couple agrees to end their relationship. Sloane says goodbye to Brett and prepares to see Arthur.
Part 6, Chapter 35 Summary
A nurse directs Sloane to Arthur’s room. She’s hurt when she finds the entire book club inside with Arthur. She confronts Arthur for excluding her and gets even more upset when they inform her they’ve been working on a secret project. Arthur urges Sloane to calm down and then gives her the copy of Anne of Green Gables. He explains that everyone in the club marked passages for her and that none of them wants her to leave. Sloane is overwhelmed reading through the highlighted pages. She reveals that she broke up with Brett and isn’t going to move after all. Hugging the book to her chest, she realizes how much her friends have lost and have given her.
Parts 5-6 Analysis
Parts 5 and 6 lead the novel through its climax, descending action, denouement, and resolution. Throughout Parts 1-4, Arthur’s character has lived at the margins of the narrative. Although he has brought Sloane, Maisey, Mateo, and Greg into the same physical location, his character does not receive narrative control until Part 5. Therefore, his character has been solely shaped via Sloane’s, Maisey’s, Mateo’s, and Greg’s points of view. For this reason, he remains an enigmatic and antagonizing figure until these final narrative sequences. None of the other narrators fully understand Arthur. His past remains mysterious and thus breeds conflict throughout the preceding four sections. Therefore, when Arthur’s first-person point of view arises on the page with the start of Part 5, his narrative voice lends clarity to the novel’s outstanding mysteries. In particular, Arthur’s fraught relationships with Nigel, Eugenia, and Hannah have remained unresolved until Part 5. Once Arthur begins to confront these interpersonal difficulties in his section, the narrative conflict begins to unravel.
Arthur’s personal growth strengthens the Racing in the Rain Book Club’s connections. Throughout the novel, Sloane, Maisey, Mateo, and Greg have all worried that once Arthur recovers, he will no longer need them. If Arthur no longer needs their caretaking assistance, the book club members fear they will lose their primary reason for sharing the same space and connecting over literature. Throughout Parts 1-4, reading and discussing books has granted the eclectic cast of characters common ground. Arthur still doubts that members like Mateo and Greg “have one good literary theory between [...] them,” but has grown reliant upon the group for a sense of community and camaraderie anyway (278). Furthermore, spending time with people he believes are different from him has encouraged him to self-reflect in new ways. Arthur has spent his life in isolation for years, so he hasn’t had to answer to anyone since his wife died and his daughter left him. Spending time with his book club has not only immersed him in The Dynamics of Unlikely Friendships but has also made him more empathetic. Throughout Part 5, Arthur’s newfound capacity to care for others and to acknowledge his mistakes manifests in a variety of ways. He apologizes to and compensates the nursing staff for his aggression, and he discusses the past with Nigel and Greg. He also articulates how much he cares for Sloane and how desperately he wants what's good for her. As a result of these changes in Arthur’s character, his new friends become more open, too. They learn how to join together over a common cause and to support one another selflessly.
Arthur and the book club’s Anne of Green Gables project is a metaphor for The Healing and Transformative Power of Literature. When Arthur goes to Nigel for help regarding his friendship with Sloane, Nigel encourages him to reflect upon his past in order to understand his present. In doing so, Arthur remembers the ways in which books have historically helped him to communicate complex emotions to those he loves. Years prior, Arthur used L. M. Montgomery’s novel to tell his wife that “she had a place” and a home with him (315). By highlighting key passages in the text, he was able to communicate “what was in [his] heart” that he’d been unable to put into his own words (315). His decision to do the same for Sloane illustrates Arthur’s willingness to be vulnerable again. At the same time, his decision to invite his friends to participate in the project captures his appreciation for friendship and community. The final scene of the book club members in the hospital captures the ways in which literature has fostered their unexpected connections, helped them overcome loneliness and sorrow, and offered them a new and unexpected version of community. All of the characters are at a crossroads at the end of the novel. Mateo is preparing to pursue a new career path. Maisey is preparing to welcome her daughter back into her home. Arthur is preparing to lose his old friend, Nigel. Nigel is preparing to say goodbye, and both Greg and Sloane are preparing to reinvent their futures in Coeur d’Alene. In spite of all these impending changes, the characters are all resolved and secure in their new communal realm. The novel’s final scene therefore lends the narrative a hopeful, redemptive ending.
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