59 pages • 1 hour read
Allison LarkinThe People We Keep
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 32-41Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “On the Road”
Part 2, Chapter 32 Summary: “March 1997 Brewster NY”
April is playing a gig at a bar when she notices a man giving her a lot of attention. His eyes follow her through the entire set, and he invites her to drinks at the bar across the street afterward. April, who has spent her time since leaving Ithaca on the road, often seeks out a place to stay after her gigs. However, she usually tries to find a man who won’t expect sex from her. She recognizes that Ray is not like those men, but feeling the need for a normal date, April agrees. The date goes well and Ray invites April back to his house.
April follows Ray into his house with her guitar and purse, two things she never leaves behind. She plays one of his guitars and becomes anxious when Ray pulls out a bag of cocaine. After seeing him snort multiple lines, April tries to turn in. However, Ray insists that they need to have sex and grabs April’s wrist, hurting her. April knees Ray in the groin and escapes with her belongings to her car. He chases her, and as she drives away, she runs over his foot, breaking it with a crunch she will never forget.
April drives until daylight but cannot shake the fear from the attack. As she considers her next move, she writes to Carly, a habit she has formed over the past three years. Her letters are like short confessionals and have never once been mailed. When April deems it safe, she heads to a pay phone to make some calls. She changes her schedule and instead of heading to New Jersey, she decides to go to New York City.
Part 2, Chapter 33 Summary
In New York City, April waits in a restaurant for Matty, who has been discovered and cast in a popular soap opera since she last saw him. He is not only famous now, but quite wealthy. April feels out of place in the fancy restaurant, and when Matty, now Matthew, arrives, she is let down. She called Matty because she “wanted to feel safe” and experience a sense of home (198). However, seeing him has the opposite effect. Matty is a completely different person now, with fake teeth, a strict diet, and a busy schedule that has no meaningful time for her.
April previously imagined Matty moping and never moving on from her. She now recognizes that this Matty would have left her in Little River when he became successful. Matty has to leave, although he gives different reasons as to why at different points through the lunch. April is left disappointed by the meeting even though she finally has confirmation that their relationship would never have worked out. After the lunch, April drives to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and stays in a motel. She writes some lyrics, washes up, and finally departs, leaving the sweater she took from Matty three years ago.
Part 2, Chapter 34 Summary
April’s next stop is Binghamton, New York, where she stops at Arnie’s bar. Arnie, a friend, always lets her play when she rolls through town. Upon arriving, April helps Arnie clean the bar and he in turn feeds her. He lives above the bar and lets her stay with him without making any romantic or sexual advances. April showers upstairs for her gig later that night, and while she enjoys the hot water, she lets herself cry.
Part 2, Chapter 35 Summary
April plays a successful show at Arnie’s and earns a good sum of money. During the show, she sees her friend Justin in the crowd. Justin is the first person she met after leaving Ithaca. He is a college student in town and April finds it comforting to know that she will see him every time she is there. She accompanies him back to his apartment, where she showers and they have sex. They have never truly had a romantic relationship, but she wonders what it would be like to stay with him long term.
In the morning, Justin does his best to convince April to stay before she can make a quick exit. Her curiosity surrounding what it would be like to be with him convinces her to stay. As they spend the morning together, Justin tells her about his problems with his father, who is trying to make him come home during spring break to interview for summer internships. Justin wishes he could be as free as April, and April decides to let him accompany her on the road. They eat breakfast, make plans, and leave Binghamton.
Part 2, Chapter 36 Summary
As they set out on their road trip, April finds Justin a difficult traveling companion. She can’t look past the advantages he has enjoyed in life. This boils up when they stop for gas: Justin buys a feast of snacks while April gets only the gas. April oscillates between wanting to spend time with Justin and feeling as though she isn’t ready to do so after what happened with Adam.
Part 2, Chapter 37 Summary
As they drive, April thinks of how much easier it is to be in a romantic relationship than a friendship on the road. She remembers traveling with a friend who started stealing from her to feed her drug use. As the day lengthens and April tires of driving, Justin suggests a cheap hotel. April believes that “a good lock on the door and a mattress that doesn’t smell like piss is as fancy as [she] can justify” (222-23), but Justin uses his father’s credit card to spring for a nicer place. Once again, April experiences conflicting feelings, uncomfortable with Justin’s wealth and his offer of a steady relationship.
Part 2, Chapter 38 Summary
Justin and April decide on Weeki Wachee as their destination and prepare to leave the hotel. As she readies herself, Justin goes to check out. April is called to the lobby, where Justin tells her that his father canceled the credit card and that he now has no way of paying. Justin nears a breaking point as he calls his father, who tells Justin that he will not help him and that Justin could be arrested. April agrees to pay for the charges and Justin’s relief gives April a rush.
The manager accompanies April up to the room where her money is, and April gets the sense that he would accept payment in sex. This brings up memories of the night Ray attacked her, and when the manager accidentally lets the door close behind him, April panics. The manager takes the money and leaves, and April lets the tears flow. When April finally joins Justin in the car, Justin asserts that he doesn’t want to return home and let his father win. April reworks their plan so they can still see the beach while driving less.
Part 2, Chapter 39 Summary
April and Justin arrive late at a house on Anna Maria Island, Florida, that April assures Justin is her uncle’s house. However, it is actually a vacation home that April knows is not usually occupied at this time. She knows the code, as this is not the first time she has used the house, and they settle in. Before going to sleep, the two walk to the beach and go swimming. The next day, April drives them to a different beach so as not to be noticed, although she tells Justin that it is simply a better beach. April looks for gigs in the area but finds her usual bars booked. April needs money and decides to instead play on the beach. She attracts a group of children and plays children’s songs for hours, making a decent amount of money.
Part 2, Chapter 40 Summary
Justin soon realizes that the house does not belong to April’s family and calls his father. His father buys him a plane ticket, and Justin tells April that he is leaving. April is hurt by his accusations but recognizes that they aren’t suited to one another: “He’s expensive and loud and he listens to awful music and can’t make do with what we have” (241). She will drive him to the airport, and as he gets ready, she takes one of his shirts.
Part 2, Chapter 41 Summary
On the ride to the airport Justin largely ignores April. She tries to break the tension but he snaps at her, accusing her of making him a thief. After she drops Justin off, April drives around feeling completely lost, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. She begins to break down and stops to call Margo from a pay phone. With limited funds, April only has enough time to blurt into the phone, “Why don’t I matter to anyone?” (243). Then the line goes dead.
Part 2, Chapters 32-41 Analysis
The novel features a three-year time jump between Parts 1 and 2, and the latter opens with April in a much different place than she was in the run-up to her departure from Ithaca. She has matured both personally and artistically, but she is more lost than when she left Little River. Outside of the first six chapters, this section represents April at her lowest. She has tried setting guidelines for herself to survive and thrive on the road but in this section she goes against them twice, and each time results in April’s being hurt. This section, more than any other, focuses on April’s struggles to contend with the identities others impose on her.
Part 2 opens with April going on a date after she finishes her set. While she usually doesn’t go home with men like Ray, she decides that for once she can let herself do what she wants. The results are disastrous. When she resists his advances, he berates her, saying, “You fuck for drugs. You’ll be gone in the morning. You’ll take the rest of my bag while I’m sleeping. I have to get mine now, so at least it’s a fair trade” (193). As April continues to reject his advances, Ray attacks her. Ray views April as an impoverished traveling musician and expects her to be a drug user who takes advantage of men. His assumptions about her—that she is not the independent person that she is—and his complete disregard for her consent illustrate some men’s refusal to accept women’s boundaries. April, a kind and talented musician, is in Ray’s eyes simply a means to satisfy his desires.
While not as violent, April’s trip with Justin ends in a similar fashion. Justin and April have chemistry and enjoy each other’s company, but their limited interactions have kept them from truly seeing one another. Their road trip together brings them into closer proximity, and April struggles to reconcile his socioeconomic privilege with her disadvantage. The conflict of this section is largely internal, with April constantly analyzing Justin’s actions and words for signs of his more privileged upbringing. When she offers him her skirt to dry himself because they have no towels, Justin “looks at [her] funny but uses it to wipe his face. He’s not used to making the most of what’s in front of him” (233). It is clear that Justin is attracted to April’s free and untethered lifestyle, but he sees it more as a quirk than a necessity. As someone who would only live April’s life by choice, Justin cannot fully appreciate or understand her situation: “He’s not used to making the most of what’s in front of him” because he can always have more (233). April struggles to be around someone like this, and the divide that begins with gas station snacks and choice of hotel room cracks open once Justin fully understands April.
When Justin discovers that the house they’ve been staying in doesn’t belong to April’s family, he turns on her. Both he and April have come to a new understanding of each other, but while April tries to stay with him, he abandons her. His view of her radically changes, and rather than seeing her situation as the product of her parents’ neglect, he sees it as a crime. He further feels that she willfully chose to involve him in that crime, endangering his prospects, and his lack of empathy is immediate and harsh. Before he even confronts April about her deception, he has already contacted his father for a plane ticket and an escape plan. Once his idealized image of April collapses, he throws her away: She can no longer provide the adventure he so desperately craved and becomes expendable. Despite her having supported him on the trip and even saved him from legal trouble at the hotel, he cannot accept her lie. Once again, April is the victim of someone using her for their own purposes while refusing to recognize her for who she is.
