Oona Out of Order

Madeleine is Oona’s mother and one of only two people who know about Oona’s leaps. Her late husband called her a “force of nature,” which Oona revises to a “force of chaos” (312), as Madeleine is a free spirit who is also full of wisdom. Her grandson, Kenzie, says Madeleine is good at living her best life; she is often traveling or enjoying time with boyfriends.

Before becoming a mother, Madeleine worked as a flight attendant—a job that would have satisfied her craving for adventure. However, though she once thought that having a child would hinder her life, Madeleine ultimately tells Oona it was quite the opposite: Motherhood completed her existence, which explains why she spends so much time helping Oona handle her leaps and various life crises.

Madeleine is a mentor figure whose advice about living life to the fullest, taking risks, enjoying the present, and putting others (specifically, one’s children) first constitutes the major lessons Oona must learn. It isn’t until Madeleine is dying that Oona fully grasps her wisdom, sacrifice, and dedication. Madeleine represents a fully actualized version of Oona and thus what Oona is journeying to become. Because of this, they often clash, and plenty of conflict arises from their misunderstandings and harsh words. However, Oona and Madeleine always make up and are the main source of comfort in each other’s lives.

Dale D’Amico is Oona’s teenage love and her boyfriend at the time of her first leap in 1982. He embodies that period of Oona’s life and becomes the measuring stick against which she compares everything and everyone else: “[No one] came close to Dale D’Amico. [No one] kissed her back with such transcendent passion” (332). He is later revealed to be the father of Kenzie, Oona’s son, though he dies from a stroke before his son is born. When the novel begins, he is the guitarist and lead singer of his band, Early Dawning. At their New Year’s Party, he gives three gifts to Oona—a watch, a leather jacket, and an hourglass necklace—each of which becomes a symbol of the moment to which she wants to return.

Dale is just as in love with Oona as she is with him, and his good looks, rockabilly style, and solicitous and protective behavior make him seem to her like the perfect boyfriend. As Oona matures, however, she begins to realize his control over the band held her back and that because she was infatuated, she didn’t heed the warnings. It takes years of life experience (and her mother’s wisdom) for Oona to realize that Dale’s insistence that he be the sole guitarist and lead singer denied Oona’s true self. However, when Oona returns to 1982 fully actualized and confident, he allows her to fulfill her destiny as their lead singer.

Kenzie (Mackenzie Dale Charles Ray) is Oona and Dale’s son, born after Dale dies but named for both him and Oona’s father, Charles. He is given to another couple to raise, and Oona promises not to contact him until he is 18—a rule that she breaks with painful consequences. When Kenzie’s mothers die in an accident, he lives with Madeline without Oona’s knowledge.

For most of the novel, either Kenzie or Oona is deceiving the other about the true nature of their relationship. When Oona first leaps, it is Kenzie who greets her, but he says he is her personal assistant and friend. The title is an apt one, as Kenzie does indeed function as Oona’s assistant throughout the novel. Many bildungsroman stories contain mentors, teachers, or guides, and Kenzie is a modernized version of this trope. However, he is an unusual guide character in that he is also Oona’s son, though her time traveling means that he is often older than her interior self. Kenzie is wise beyond his years and points out that Oona has the privilege of seeing life in a unique, interesting way––something she hadn’t considered until he mentions it. Besides helping her adjust to the reality of her time travel, Kenzie also teaches her about 21st-century life; having been born in the 1980s, he represents the most modern era in the book with his slang, comfort with social media, online dating, and experience of losing a boyfriend during 9/11.

Kenzie is the catalyst for the final lesson that Oona must learn on her path to maturity: putting the happiness of her child before her own. It isn’t until she considers trying to change fate to benefit Kenzie, even at her own expense, that she finds peace with her life. At the end of the novel, Oona lets him go and he is in New Zealand starting a relationship with a man he met online.

Crosby is Oona’s boyfriend at the beginning of her club kid year of 1991. He is handsome, thoughtful, and solicitous, and he wears a pompadour in a style that is reminiscent of Dale. While he tries to make Oona’s birthday a good one, she is wrapped up in her leap and feels too much like an imposter to be comfortable with him. Her anxiety causes her to confess that she cheated on him. He is deeply hurt and tells her never to speak to or call him again, launching Oona’s spiral into the addiction and partying that characterizes the rest of the year.

Edward Clary is a charming, handsome, thirty-something English man who has a similar hairstyle (faux-hawk) to Oona’s previous two boyfriends (Dale and Crosby). He is the chef and joint owner of the ill-fated restaurant Oona helps him open, Clary’s Pub. He is Oona’s husband in Part 4 and a love interest in Part 5, but he is also the major villain of the novel, as he cheats on her and robs her to pay his gambling debts. Though Edward does not know the details of Oona’s situation, he takes advantage of her memory loss to continue a relationship he knew Oona wanted to break off; what’s more, he does this so that Oona will financially support his restaurant and lifestyle.

When Oona first meets Edward, they are married, and the year that follows tracks the disintegration of their relationship. The second time she meets him is the year they fall in love, and Oona uses her prior (future) knowledge of him to bond during a plane ride to Egypt. The pain of their failed relationship is key to Oona’s evolution toward accepting that there is good and bad at every stage of life and that she needs to enjoy the moments she is in. She does so by embracing him as a potential love interest rather than trying to avoid the relationship entirely. His subsequent betrayal sends her on a year-long healing process that cements the lesson of living in the moment.