48 pages • 1-hour read
When Life Gives You Lululemons
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Part 2, Chapters 23-31Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes sexual content and child death.
Part 2, Chapter 23 Summary: “Home to the Custom-Fit Vagina: Miriam”
Miriam munches on Goldfish crackers while researching Karolina’s arrest. When Paul appears looking fresh and healthy, Miriam suggests they leave Connecticut for Montana. He dismisses the topic to head to the gym, and Miriam is left wondering about his fidelity again.
She heads to breakfast with Ashley and some other local women. Their conversation about plastic surgery and vagina reconstruction makes Miriam uncomfortable, but she wonders if this could help her marriage, too. Later that day, she relays the dialogue to Emily, who insists this is all very normal. She changes the topic to Karolina and Graham.
Part 2, Chapter 24 Summary: “The Tides Are Turning and the Tears Are Terrific: Karolina”
Karolina FaceTimes with Harry but feels sad afterward. Then Emily comes over and helps her prepare for a Mothers Against Drunk Driving event at the Greenwich Golf and Yacht Club. A nervous Karolina takes the microphone when she’s introduced. When she starts telling her story, she bursts into tears and races to the bathroom.
Emily finds her, exclaiming at her brilliant performance. Karolina insists her tears are real, which delights Emily even more. The women at the club are moved by Karolina’s emotionality; she gets countless calls from reporters afterward, who now see her differently.
Part 2, Chapter 25 Summary: “The Cocaine of the Kindergarten Set: Emily”
Emily is in a good mood for days following Miles’s surprise flight to Greenwich. One day, Karolina comments on her positive energy, insisting that everyone is talking about her and Miles’s reunion. A confused Emily is horrified to discover there’s been gossip about her and Alistair.
When Karolina heads upstairs for a moment, Emily answers a call on her phone from Graham. Graham explodes over Karolina’s appearance at the charity. Emily hangs up and texts him that she knows about his vasectomy. Afterward, she calls Miriam to tell her what’s going on. They get into an argument about Emily’s uncouth way of handling Karolina’s case.
The next day, Emily takes Miriam’s daughter Maisie on a day trip to New York. After visiting the American Girl Place, Emily takes Maisie to Runway so that she can meet with Miranda. She explains that she can’t take the Met Ball job because she’s working with Karolina, and she explains her need to bring down Graham. Miranda promises to solve the problem so that Emily can work for her.
Part 2, Chapter 26 Summary: “The Thousand-Dollar Throw: Miriam”
Miriam wakes up to Paul climbing “on top of her, naked” (281). After they have sex, Miriam feels convinced he is cheating. While he gets the kids ready for school, she logs onto his computer, discovering a series of inexplicable expenses on his card, including one for an expensive blanket and another for a rental space. After the kids leave, she interrogates him about what’s going on. He insists she get in the car so he can explain.
The couple arrives at a new building nearby. Paul leads Miriam into an office space he has rented and redecorated for her. He insists she is perfect to him and tells her he knows how hard the move has been on her. He wants her to return to work if it would make her happy. They kiss and profess their love.
Part 2, Chapter 27 Summary: “The Dalai Lama of Blackmail: Karolina”
Karolina takes a meeting with Trip, who apologizes for everything that’s happened. He is shocked to learn about Graham’s vasectomy and admits that he knows Graham’s secret, too. They agree it would ruin him if they outed him to the press and decide against doing so. Trip then reveals that Graham has arranged for Harry to attend boarding school at Choate so Harry can spend weekends with Karolina.
Karolina races home to tell Emily her news. Emily realizes Miranda was behind this. She explains everything, admitting that she told Miranda Graham’s secret for leverage. However, she urges Karolina to contact Graham and ask for more. Karolina texts Graham saying she wants Harry to be a day student at Choate and live with her full-time. Graham agrees.
Part 2, Chapter 28 Summary: “One Little Ambien: Emily”
Emily is happy for Karolina but feels frustrated with herself for relying on Miranda again. She knows she’ll have to work for her to repay her. Feeling bloated, overweight, and depressed, she goes to bed. Later, Karolina wakes her up and demands to know why Emily didn’t tell her she was pregnant.
A confused Emily insists the pregnancy tests she took, which are littered around the bathroom, are all false positives. Karolina convinces her otherwise and offers to take her to the doctor to confirm. Emily realizes she did have sex with Miles after she got her IUD out and before she got it replaced.
Miriam and Karolina accompany Emily to the doctor. She is 16 weeks along and having a girl. Overwhelmed by her friends’ excitement, Emily demands they take her out for fast food.
Part 2, Chapter 29 Summary: “Willing to Do Whatever It Takes: Miriam”
A few months later, Miriam works happily “in her new office” (311). She receives a call from an Officer Lewis, who was on duty the night of Karolina’s arrest. He admits that the police were in on Graham’s scheme and denied Karolina a sobriety test despite her requests to take one. He agrees to go public with the information.
While grabbing lunch at the café downstairs, Miriam runs into Ashley. Ashley reveals she is now seeing Alistair and references the naked selfie Emily sent him. Miriam is confused and skeptical, but a surprise visit from Paul distracts her. He leads her back to her office, where they have sex on the pricey throw he bought her.
Part 2, Chapter 30 Summary: “The Girl Has Balls: Karolina”
Over the following months, Karolina settles into her new life in Greenwich with Harry. Then one night, Regan calls to confer about holiday scheduling. Karolina is remarkably calm and informs Regan about Graham’s vasectomy before ending the call. Shortly thereafter, Emily arrives, demanding to know if Karolina saw the news. There are headlines about the manslaughter Graham committed decades prior; they guess that Regan knew and publicized the secret after learning of Graham’s vasectomy.
Later that night, Graham calls Karolina, begging for forgiveness and insisting he wants to get back together. Karolina tells him they are now only co-parents and will never get back together.
Part 2, Chapter 31 Summary: “Goodbye Wheatgrass, Hello Sarcasm: Emily”
Emily and Miles move back to New York. One day, Miriam and Karolina prepare for a baby shower they’re throwing for Emily. Meanwhile, Emily takes a call from Helene, agreeing to work with Rizzo. Olivia Belle was recently involved in a scandal and is sending all her clients to Emily. Emily made it through the Met Ball at Runway, but she is thrilled she’ll now have an excuse to leave.
The baby shower starts, and Miranda makes an appearance. She tells Emily that she can’t work at Runway pregnant and hires Karolina in her stead. After Miranda leaves, Miriam and Karolina tease Emily.
Part 2, Chapters 23-31 Analysis
Transformations in Emily, Miriam, and Karolina’s lives in the final chapters of the novel reiterate the novel’s theme of How Age Changes Ideals and Outlook. Throughout When Life Gives You Lululemons, all three of the main characters have struggled to reconcile with their shifting circumstances. Formerly high-powered career women in New York City, Emily, Miriam, and Karolina find it difficult to accept their unfamiliar domestic, marital, vocational, and suburban realities. In these final chapters, however, life’s surprises teach them that it is okay for their desires and needs to change over time, and they all realize that their identities, values, and even needs may now have evolved.
Emily’s pregnancy, Miriam’s return to work, and Karolina’s custody arrangement are unexpected plot points that reiterate the importance of accepting life’s changes. For as long as she can remember, Emily has been averse to getting pregnant, having children, and raising a family. She has had no interest in “throw[ing] away her life and career on a crying, pissing, spitting thing that would inevitably grow up to hate her as much as she hated her own mother” (210). However, Emily’s unplanned pregnancy takes her by surprise and presents her with an opportunity. She did not intend to become a mother, but her pregnancy transforms her outlook on the future and herself. She tells her friends “I’m not happy,” but as hard as she tries “to look bitchy—usually something that came so naturally to her,” Emily can’t “keep the smile off her face” (309). Emily’s altered demeanor implies that she has undergone a change of heart. Life has given her this gift, which has reminded her that it is okay for her desires and expectations to change as she grows and changes. However, although the baby is meant as a symbol of hope and the future, it does risk reinforcing gender stereotypes. Now that Emily is in her thirties and struggling to find her footing in the work world, the narrative implies that she needs motherhood to deliver her from her quandary and give her a ready-made purpose.
The outcomes of Miriam and Karolina’s storylines also risk edging into similar cultural stereotypes about a woman’s worth and social purpose. Miriam is overcome by self-loathing throughout the majority of the novel. She feels both purposeless without her job and pitiful without her husband’s attention. As soon as Paul tells her to return to work and orchestrates a new workplace for her, however, Miriam’s self-worth returns. Similarly, as soon as Paul declares his love for Miriam and adoration of her body, Miriam starts to feel better about herself. On their surface, these plot points offer Miriam’s character redemption, but their subtext implies that Miriam needs a man to remind her of her worth and to stage-manage her life for her to feel secure and purposeful. Karolina similarly rediscovers her happiness only in the context of motherhood. The author does represent her love for Harry in a pure and guileless way, but Karolina is unable to believe in her self-worth again until Harry returns home. Although these plot points complete each character’s journey, offering new perspectives on aging and the future, the women’s final circumstances also risk reinforcing the notion that, as women age, their only possible social role is to remain at home mothering children.
At the same time, the outcomes of Emily, Miriam, and Karolina’s storylines do convey the importance of adapting to life’s changes. Amidst these changes, the women find strength in the Transformative Power of Female Friendship, discovering that as long as their connections with each other remain intact, they can overcome any challenge. For example, Miriam and Karolina avidly support Emily’s pregnancy, never disparaging her for her marital doubts or flirtation with Alistair. Emily and Miriam work tirelessly to bring Graham to justice and reunite Karolina with her son. Karolina and Emily celebrate Miriam’s marital reconstruction, never interrogating the authenticity of Paul’s love. The final scene of the women at the baby shower together reinforces the notion that close female friendships help women survive life’s troubles and celebrate life’s joys, offering nonjudgmental support and the space to grow and change.
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