This Time Next Year

Both the novel’s structure and its plot reinforce the significance of time and its effects on individuals’ feelings about their lives and agency. Cousens uses attitudes toward time, destiny, and free will to demonstrate key character traits and underscore the role of self-perception in romance and life.

Minnie has a lifelong dread of her New Year’s Day birthday, believing the day itself brings her bad luck. Early in the novel, Minnie warns Greg, her then-boyfriend, “I did warn you about spending New Year with me” (2). Subsequently, she is accidentally trapped in a bathroom the entire night and rescued only when the party she is attending empties. This mishap validates her lifelong dread of the day. Quinn is shocked by her vehement dislike of the day, as he loves their mutual birthday. Minnie at first attributes this to his economic privilege and happy demeanor, assuming that he cannot believe in bad luck since he has never experienced any. Minnie’s family shares her belief in the power of time; after learning that Quinn was born before Minnie and will receive the prize money she hoped for, Connie Cooper tells her newborn, “Just a minute too late, hey” (26).