Evvie Drake Starts Over

“There was more to retrieve from the house, but she slid into the front seat and closed the door, leaning back against the headrest with their eyes closed. Holy s***, I'm really going. In a few hours, she would be in some chain hotel with scratchy bedspreads and a ragtag cable lineup. She would buy a bottle of wine, or a box of it, and she'd lie dead center in the king-sized bed and drink and wiggle her toes and read for as long as she wanted. But then she began to wonder what she would do tomorrow, and there wasn't time for that, so she took a deep breath and got out of the car to go get the rest of her things. She was walking up the driveway when her phone rang.”

This paragraph is the culmination of Evvie’s inner struggle about whether she will leave the loveless relationship with her emotionally abusive husband, Tim. Fearing she will never be able to summon the inner strength to leave if she does not go now, she packs her car with necessities and experiences this moment of exultation. The intruding phone call announces that Tim has been in a fatal car wreck. This puts Evvie into a spiral of guilt, partly imagining that her departure caused his death and partly hating herself for not grieving over Tim’s demise. Later, inebriated, she laments that she should never have tried to achieve happiness.

“‘‘Tell her what? […] Tell her we earnestly tried to look meaningfully at each other. And that it was the least sexy thing that has ever happened between two humans, maybe ever.’ We both cracked up laughing.”

Holmes provides the emotional boundaries of the relationship Evvie shares with her best friend, Andy. She indirectly describes the moment when the two tested the possibility of being romantically involved and found it ridiculous. This is important to Holmes, who says in the Book Club Guide that men and women possess and benefit from platonic friendships, and that there is a dearth of literature describing such relationships.

“Dean reached over to rub his right shoulder. ‘Yeah, make your jokes. I went to eight sports psychologists and two psychiatrists.’ He started counting off on his fingers. ‘I did acupuncture, acupressure, suction cups on my shoulders, and candles […] ask me about that sometime. I quit gluten, I quit sugar, I quit sex, I had extra sex, I ate no meat, just meat. I took creative movement classes, I was hypnotized a lot, and I learned how to meditate. That's the one I still do, by the way.’ He looked at Andy, who had his mouth twisted into a perplexed curve. ‘Where did I lose you? Extra sex?’”

Here, Dean and Andy discuss various treatments Dean used unsuccessfully to overcome the yips, his sudden, permanent inability to pitch a baseball.