Oona Out of Order

Content Warning: This section references drug use and addiction.

Oona states these phrases and versions of them multiple times over the course of the novel; they are the most important lesson she must learn on her path to maturity. Madeleine also constantly reiterates them and leads by example with activities like her New Year’s polar bear swim—an activity that aims to shock one’s body into the present moment. The phrases are a pop-culture summation of the multifaceted mindfulness movement. “Be here now,” for example, dates back to Ram Dass’s 1971 book of the same name, which came out just over a decade before the start of the novel and was a Western interpretation of the teachings of Dass’s Hindi guru, Neem Karol Baba.

One of the major ideas Dass’s book puts forth is that there is no point planning or obsessing too much for the future; doing so is a form of mental time travel that prevents one from being in the present. For Oona, this takes on a literal meaning. During the 1982 party, she is preoccupied with the future and the decision she must make, so she misses the celebration. Fate decides to let her mind have its way, and she is whisked away to the future she has been projecting herself into.