The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise

Tanner Quimby is one of the protagonists of the novel. She is 21 years old and finds herself living at home with her parents after she fell off a balcony at a fraternity party at Northwestern, breaking her leg and losing her soccer scholarship. Without her soccer scholarship, she cannot afford tuition, even with financial aid and student loans. She fell off the balcony because a drunk frat boy kept hitting on her, and instead of standing up for herself, she stepped backward until she fell, due to her fear of being called irrational or impolite. The loss of her education represents the wider losses that women face in society because of misogyny. Because of this, she harbors a great deal of anger, which explodes in what she refers to as “Hulk-outs” (13). After one of these episodes in which she yells at her mother over pickles, her mom kicks her out, leading her to take the job as Louise’s caretaker to have income and somewhere to live. She feels lost in the world without school and soccer and resentful that she spent all of high school working to be the best student athlete, only to lose it all falling off a balcony at a party she didn’t even want to attend. 

Tanner goes on the run with Louise in exchange for $10,000—enough to return to Northwestern. She’s nervous for the first half of their adventure, as she believes that the police are pursuing them. She does not know that Louise has no idea that the police are looking for her and is running toward George and not away from the authorities. With Louise, Tanner forms a real and meaningful friendship that transcends their age difference and difference in life experience. Tanner also begins a romance with Louise’s neighbor, August, which helps her move on from a failed fling with a boy at Northwestern.

Tanner has an inner journey of growth throughout the trip westward, which is aligned with the conventions of the road movie genre. She grows from an angry, scared, and reserved girl into a confident, energetic, and happy young woman. Louise challenges her to recognize and deal with her anger, to face her fears, and to push herself outside of her comfort zone. Instead of returning to Northwestern with the $10,000, Tanner travels, visiting her friend Vee to apologize and receive forgiveness for telling their soccer coach that she did drugs, returning to the St. Louis Arch to ride to the top, and traveling to Italy to see the sights that Louise recommends. After her transformative journey with Louise, Tanner is free to make her own decisions and live her life the way she wants.

August is Louise’s neighbor who often does odd jobs for her, especially maintenance of the Jaguar. He is 25 years old, described as conventionally good-looking, and has a flirtatious personality. He bonds with Tanner over their favorite video game, Horizon Zero Dawn, and asks her on a date, though he stands her up. He later tells Tanner that he missed their date because his ex-girlfriend needed him to watch his eight-year-old son. He had a son when he was in high school, before being arrested his senior year for having more than three ounces of weed, which is a felony in Georgia. He spent three years in prison, and afterward Louise helped him get a job as a line cook despite his criminal record. He is the foil to the representations of misogyny in the novel, since he is respectful toward women and committed to being a good father.

In repayment for that favor, August meets Tanner and Louise in Colorado to drive them the rest of the way to California. On their trip, August and Tanner’s romance blooms, and they share several kisses while sharing motel rooms. He tells Tanner about his record, but she doesn’t judge him. He also backs Tanner up when she defends Louise and George from Salvatore. August and Tanner’s relationship is unclear at the end of the book. They travel to St. Louis together, but the rest of Tanner’s travels she takes alone, not ready to be tied down so young. Their romantic subplot therefore does not define the shape of the novel, reflecting its messages about female empowerment and agency.

George (Georgia) Dixon is Louise’s best friend and former heist partner. George and Louise ran a whisper network that helped women escape from abusive relationships together, and George also helped Louise when she robbed Copley Plaza. George is outspoken, and after she and her husband Jermaine moved to California to escape Salvatore, she returned to school, became a paralegal, and then a lawyer who tried many prominent cases related to women’s rights. 

George forgives Louise when she comes to see her at the memory care facility in Redding, because though Louise went through with kidnapping Jules against George’s judgement, her love for Louise overcomes any anger. She suffers from short-term memory loss but has a full grasp on the events of the past. After the events in Redding, George returns to Atlanta with Louise and moves into a care facility with her and dies several months later. She represents the enduring power of friendship.

Salvatore D’Amato, the antagonist, is a specter who haunts much of the novel but only appears toward the end, when he is released from San Quentin prison. Salvatore was a mafia boss in New York City, before he was arrested for tax fraud and then held longer in prison after he beat a fellow inmate to death. In 1968, he met Betsy Blau. After a coworker of her father’s saw Betsy and Salvatore kissing, she was kicked out of the house, so Salvatore married her. He then became physically and verbally abusive toward her throughout their marriage. In 1974, she became pregnant and hatched a plan, with the help of Louise and George, to leave him. When he called her fat one night, she told him her plan, and he became enraged and beat her so viciously that she had to be put on life support, though he claimed that she fell down the stairs. She gave birth to their daughter, Jules, and died two days later. Salvatore hired Louise as a nanny, and later Louise kidnapped Jules. Salvatore sent someone to collect Jules, calling and threatening Louise, saying, “If I ever see you again, you will meet the same fate as my dearly departed wife” (310). He represents the misogyny present in society.

In the present, Salvatore goes to the motel to find Louise and George and demand they reunite him with Jules, as he wants to meet her before he dies. Louise wants to deny him this but resolves to let Jules make the decision herself. He claims to be reformed by prison and to have put his violent past behind him, but he still slams the table angrily and shouts at George and Louise, hinting at further violence still bubbling beneath the surface. The novel does not confirm whether Jules reunites with her father, or what Salvatore’s fate is, other than the parole violation of breaking and entering into the motel room that could potentially send him back to prison. He is sidelined due to his unresolved ending, reflecting the novel’s aims to honor women whom men have sidelined.