“Beach Read” by Emily Henry (post 1): Novelists January, age 29, and Gus, 32, agree to help each other overcome writer’s block in this witty bestseller

What is January’s problem? She has reasons to be depressed: She doesn’t have much money, her father recently died, she is living alone in the house he shared with his mistress, and she can’t get her next novel started, which is unusual for her.

But January does not express her distress in terms of depression. Instead, she refers to herself as having been the “old January” (1, pp. 11, 22, 30) before she had writer’s block, and as becoming the “new January” (1, p. 41) after she starts to work with Gus.

She doesn’t describe her problem in terms of mood, because she experiences herself as having had a change in personality: the way her mind works, the way she behaves, and the way she relates to people. She feels different.

She may at times hear a voice in her head (written in italics): “That already happened. Last year. And it didn’t kill you, so neither will this” (1, p. 4). And she refers to “a part of me” (1, p. 4). Persons with multiple personality may hear alternate personalities as voices in their head. And “parts” is a common way that people refer to their undiagnosed alternate personalities.

She talks to herself in the mirror (1, p. 51), as persons with multiple personality sometimes do. And she speaks of herself as once having been “torn in half” (1, p. 86).

Comment

Multiple personality is an unintentional subtext in the beginning of this novel. As I read on, I will see if there is anything more explicit. If you are new to this blog, please search “subjectively experienced metaphors,” “voices,” “italics,” “mirrors,” and “unacknowledged multiple personality” for related past posts.

1. Emily Henry. Beach Read. New York, Jove, 2020.