One Italian Summer

Serle gives Carol and Katy parallel narratives; they double each other through their need to develop their identities outside the domestic sphere. Carol serves as both a wife and a mother, so her identity is rooted within her relationships with her family, whereas Katy defines herself as a daughter and wife. Despite their parallels, Katy tends to only view Carol within this capacity because she believes that Carol is perfect at being a wife and mother. However, Carol truly feels trapped within the domestic sphere, especially as a young woman. She feels “defined by this role” (209) and lives according to a shopping, feeding, and cleaning schedule rather than focusing on her career. Serle hence portrays Katy and Chuck limiting Carol’s identity to one confined by a traditional gender role.

Serle outlines this traditional gender role throughout the novel. Carol cooks dinner for Katy and Chuck, hosts parties, and gets stains out of their clothes, so they rely on her for their day-to-day living. When she gets sick, Serle illustrates Carol as helpless and a “fragment of her former self” (202). The illness took away the perfect image of Carol and her ability to take care of herself.

Although the novel begins with Carol’s death, Serle writes many different versions of Carol at different stages of life. Through Katy’s perspective, Carol appears in the novel as both a single 30-year-old living in Italy and as a mother and married woman. Because of this dichotomy, Carol’s character development does not appear as linear as Katy’s. Rather, the reader experiences 30-year-old Carol for the first time just as Katy does, whereas the memories of Carol as a mother appear as Katy remembers them. As a young woman, Carol appears as a “bursting, bubbling mess of a woman” (106). On the other hand, older Carol comes off as an image of perfection, who kept everything clean and was “a pillar of the community” (2). These memories are also influenced by Katy’s bias toward her mom and paint her in a positive light because Katy holds Carol in such high esteem. Thirty-year-old Carol, living in Italy, is imperfect and disheveled, just like Katy at the beginning of the novel. This contrasts greatly to the idealized version Katy creates of her mother; Carol’s character development therefore happens backward in inverse proportion to Katy’s as Katy discovers her sense of identity.

Adam, who works for a hotel chain, travels constantly for his job and searches for potential investment properties like Hotel Poseidon. Serle uses him to create the romantic subplot and generate conflict in the novel relating to Katy’s marriage. He serves as another romantic interest for Katy, and he is a foil to Eric, her husband. Adam lives a nomadic lifestyle, and Katy finds this mysterious and different from her dependable routines with Eric. The first thing she notices about him is his “confident stance” and attractiveness (39). Right away, he becomes desirable to her.

Through Adam, Serle catalyzes Katy’s character development. He challenges her perception of the world and of her own identity. Not only is he desirable to Katy, but Adam also provides a sense of newness for her. She knows nothing about him, and he does not know anything about her. They are mysterious to each other, which is the opposite of her familiarity with Eric. Katy can look at Adam and see “someone whose shape and mind and history are not familiar to [her]” (103). Rather than feeling stifled, like with Eric, Adam provides Katy with excitement. This excitement drives the pace of the novel. Adam represents an opportunity of a fresh start for Katy; he symbolizes the unknown and appears as a mysterious figure about whom neither Katy nor the reader knows much.

Adam forms part of Serle’s temporal structuring of the novel because he forces Katy to exist in the present. Because she is actively learning about his world, she does not continuously reflect on the past since they do not have a past. She says that she can feel his “touch up [her] spine” and that it feels like “energy, electricity” (145). Adam allows Katy to simply feel, and her desire for him is visceral and grounds her to the moment. This is reinforced in the climax of the novel when Adam also allows Katy to explore herself sexually.

Eric met Katy when they were in college, and he actively pursued her. Because they met at such a young age, Katy views Eric with the past in mind. Eric represents where Katy has been, acting as a stable figure in her life. He begins and ends the novel devoted to his relationship with her and maintains a calm demeanor throughout Katy’s grieving process. Serle presents him as kindhearted and inclined to make connections with other people.

Despite his willingness to provide Katy with space, she initially finds herself viewing Eric in a negative light because of their comfortability with each other. Unlike Adam, Eric is not new, nor does he represent a chance at a new life. Since he is a foil to Adam, Serle initially confines Eric to California away from the foreign setting in which Katy undergoes her search for a sense of identity. His actions toward Katy were not made in confidence but rather in an “uncomfortableness” (5). To Katy, Eric is predictable and represents the known.

He is a static character, remaining steady in his supportive role for Katy. He does not waiver in his desires, and he encourages Katy to take the space she needs during the grieving process. Due to his solid role in Katy’s life, he acts as a personified home for her. They are not only legally linked through marriage, but their shared history also furthers their bond. His arrival to Positano completes Katy’s internal journey; Serle moves Eric to the space in which Katy has discovered her identity and had the opportunity to decide for herself if she will continue their marriage.