“Beach Read” by Emily Henry (post 2): Words and ideas inadvertently suggestive of multiple personality

“Transformative”

January, the protagonist, a romance novelist, says, “what I loved about the genre—that reading and writing it was nearly as all-consuming and transformative as actually falling in love” (1, p. 11). The word “transformative” goes beyond identifying with or empathizing with, and suggests that the writer virtually switches into the personalities of the characters who fall in love.

“Parts”

“God, what had I done? I should have known better. And then there was the part of me that couldn’t stop thinking, Am I going to do it again?” (1, p. 161). The voice or thought of the “part” (alternate personality) is written in italics, as is often the case in novels.

“And a small, stupid part of me even resented that Gus had secretly loved someone enough to marry her” (1, p.172). The “part” had a mind of its own.

“Fugue state” and discovered personalities

January and Gus go to a crowded dance, and they both become intoxicated, but that may not explain her own “dancing fugue state” and that “This was a different Gus than I’d seen” (1, p. 191).

“Fugue” implies amnesia, but since there is no other reference to amnesia for attendance at the dance, the “dancing fugue” may have been a multiple personality memory gap. And since a “different Gus” is similar to the “old” and “new” versions of the protagonist, January, mentioned at the beginning of the novel (see post 1), this is a continuation of the idea that people have various personalities, which would also include January’s late beloved father, whom she thought had been faithful to her mother, but had had a mistress and another home.

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