60 pages • 2 hours read
Left Neglected
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 29-34Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 29 Summary
Sarah and Helen are in the ski lodge. Helen does not feel well, so she says she is going back to the house to take a nap with Linus.
Sarah goes out for a walk by herself. She ends up at the building next door, which houses the NEHSA. A staffer named Mike Green introduces himself. When Sarah says her name, Mike replies that they have been expecting her. Helen came in a few weeks ago and started filling out paperwork for Sarah.
Sarah expects Mike to offer the ski sled to her, which she plans to reject. Instead, he tells her that she is now a snowboarder. Sarah protests that she does not know how to snowboard, but Mike says they will teach her.
Mike shows her an adaptive snowboard, which has a hand-rail screwed in front of the boot bindings, like a grab bar. Mike explains that since Sarah cannot find her left leg, they will lock it next to the right leg on the board, so she does not have to lift or steer it. He demonstrates how to turn by shifting his balance back and forth. Sarah copies awkwardly.
Mike says that he will snowboard facing her at first, then will snowboard behind her with a tether to help her regulate her speed. Mike asks her short- and long-term winter sports goals, then her long-term life goals. Sarah replies that she wants to get her life back.
On the beginner hill, Sarah slides and manages a right turn. As they slide down the hill, Sarah feels a rush of freedom and joy. She asks to go again.
Sarah sees her family on the hill and they are thrilled to be there together.
Chapter 30 Summary
Sarah sits at home alone reading The Week, which she can read in a much shorter time than the Sunday Times. Helen is grocery shopping with Linus, and Sarah worries that he has become too active for her.
The phone rings and Sarah struggles to answer it in time. It is her boss Richard, who wants to discuss the possibility of her returning to work. Sarah mentally wonders if she is ready, but replies that she would love to. Richard asks her to come in tomorrow at 10:00.
Sarah hangs up the phone and wonders how recovered she truly is. She reads and types slowly and walks even slower. How will she make meetings and deadlines? Pre-accident Sarah enthusiastically wants to jump right in, but her present self wonders how realistic that would be.
Chapter 31 Summary
Helen struggles to zip Sarah’s pants. Sarah refuses to wear her elastic-waistband pants and covers her open pants with her jacket. Sarah approves of her appearance, except for her cane.
Helen drives slowly, which ramps up Sarah’s anxiety. They arrive at the Prudential Center and Sarah tells Helen to meet later in the food court, so that no one will know that her mother drove her.
Everything in the lobby is as Sarah remembers it. The receptionist greets her. Sarah heads towards her old office, which is opposite of the meeting room. Her office now feels like an unfamiliar place and she does not go in.
Sarah realizes it was a mistake to detour to her office, because it takes her too long to walk to the conference room. Everyone sees her slow, cane-assisted entrance. Sarah can tell that this will be a short meeting and that her appearance unnerves people.
Richard tells Sarah that she is badly needed, so they hope she can return. Sarah wants to dive back in and misses her work life, but she knows that she cannot compromise the quality of her work or her reputation by being unprepared for the demands of her job.
Sarah confesses that she is not ready to return at full capacity, so Richard suggests starting part-time, meaning 40 hours a week. Sarah suspects it would take her 80 hours a week to produce the work expected of 40. Richard wants Sarah to start right away. She thinks of how long she has waited to be back at the threshold of her old life.
Chapter 32 Summary
Sarah tells Bob that she is going to turn down the job offer. Bob asks if she has lost her mind, since they desperately need the money. Sarah says that she is not ready. Bob thinks she is, but she feels he is being unrealistic. Sarah imagines the mistakes she would make if she tried to go back to work, how the firm and clients would suffer.
Bob wants Sarah to give it a try, saying that he cannot support their lifestyle alone. He says they would have to sell the Vermont house. Sarah suggests they sell the Welmont house and move to Vermont. Bob thinks she is joking, but she has been thinking about this idea. The cost of living in Vermont is a fraction of that in Welmont, and their house there would sell immediately.
Bob says they are too young and ambitious to live in rural Vermont, which is a place to vacation. Bob thinks the whole conversation is crazy and that Sarah should return to Berkeley.
Sarah thinks about how driven she has been all her life, until her accident gave her a chance to pause and wonder if there is more to success. She knows intuitively that she does not want to go back to her old life.
Chapter 33 Summary
Sarah, Helen, and the children are in Vermont. Bob stayed over the weekend, saying he is too busy. Sarah suspects he is still angry that she turned down the Berkeley offer.
Helen rubs her left arm, then resumes knitting. Sarah asks if she misses her home and her friends. Helen replies that she is happy living with Sarah and her family. She plans to go back to the Cape in the summer, and she expects Sarah will be much better by then.
Sarah thinks about what it would take to move to Vermont, that she and Bob would have to find jobs there. Helen says that nothing is impossible and Sarah is deeply grateful for all her mother has done.
Chapter 34 Summary
Sarah has made progress with her snowboarding and can now ride with Mike tethered behind her, on a real mountain run.
Sarah worries if Bob is right and she should have returned to work. She wonders if moving to Vermont would be a terrible idea. She tenses up and begins to panic, so Mike slows them to a halt. She assures him that she is fine and they start down the hill again. Sarah makes a perfect left turn and thinks to herself that nothing is impossible.
Sliding back down the hill, Sarah remains consumed with wondering what they should do. She asks God for a sign.
Back at the NEHSA building, Mike mentions that their director of development is moving and they need to find a replacement. He says it is too bad she does not live there year-round, since she would be perfect for the job. Sarah is amazed by the directness of this sign.
Chapters 29-34 Analysis
A major advancement in Sarah’s life is that she agrees to try snowboarding. Sarah wants to ski again but is not capable of it. She is reluctant to “compromise” by pursuing an adaptive alternative. Out on the conveyer belt up to the Rabbit Run, Sarah obsesses about how she appears. “Have I given up? Is this accommodating or failing? Should I have waited until I’m recovered enough to ski like I used to? What if that never happens?” (261) Out on the beginner hill, Sarah panics, wanting the safety of the lodge and her sedentary pursuits.
Once she starts gliding down the hill, Sarah experiences exhilaration and a sense of accomplishment. Her injury and rehabilitation have caused her so much despair and her self-esteem has suffered greatly. She has previously obsessed about what she cannot do, with the smallest movements feeling unsurmountable. Snowboarding makes Sarah feel active and successful again.
Sarah had been determined to get her old life back, with her old level of ability. Over time, it has become painfully obvious that this would be more difficult than she had anticipated, but she had refused to compromise her expectations for herself. Learning to snowboard makes Sarah realize that she does not have to do everything she used to do in order to be successful in her recovery, especially if she can be with her family.
The real test of whether Sarah can return to her “old” self comes when her boss asks her to return to work. Sarah’s immediate response is yes. This is her pre-accident self, with her previous inability to ever say no to an assignment. Upon reflection, Sarah thinks about all of the limitations she still faces. Sarah has made strides, but she must still concentrate and “scan left” to see things on her left side, and physically she is still dependent on assistance.
As her mother helps her get ready for her meeting and drives her to the meeting, Sarah falls into her old patterns of behavior. She wants to look impeccable and professional, so she refuses to wear elastic waist pants, though her dress pants do not fit her. In the car, her anxiety ramps up, as she cannot bear her mother’s slow driving. Sarah wants to urge her mother to go faster, to drive as Sarah used to drive. Suddenly Sarah realizes that they are at the spot where her accident occurred and it stops her frantic “go, go, go!” mindset. “I decide to keep quiet, both about the location of my accident and about my mother’s driving” (275).
Back at Berkeley, Sarah wants to revisit her old routine. The lobby feels like “home,” but her personal office does not. Sarah likens the office to the scene of a crime, which she should not disturb. That office is where she overextended herself and became too preoccupied to care properly for her health and her family.
Sarah enters the meeting room feeling overwhelmed, though she tries to project a confident demeanor. She is sweating from hurrying, but cannot take off her jacket because she couldn’t button her pants. She is thirsty, but cannot drink for fear of dribbling. She must hold her left hand between her knees to prevent it from “wandering.” She cannot see the managing director, because he is sitting too far to her left. Though Richard says that they desperately need her to return, Sarah realizes that she cannot perform at her past level, even at the “part-time” hours they propose. Sarah worries for her own reputation, but she also feels a sense of responsibility to the company and their clients.
Though Bob tries to convince her that she is ready to return to work, Sarah comes to the realization that she is not and does not want to go back to that crazed, multitasking life. Sarah thinks about how driven she has been, wanting to be successful in a way that would make her elite classmates envious, that her Welmont neighbors would admire, that would make Bob proud of her. “The kind of visibly successful life that would in every way be the exact opposite of the broken, shameful life of my childhood” (286). Sarah chooses to step away from that way of life.
In these chapters, Sarah learns from her mother what the meaning of contentment in life is all about. Sarah has been thinking of her family moving from Welmont to Vermont and wonders how rural Vermont could become home. Helen makes Sarah realize that no matter where they are, being a family is what makes a place a home. Sarah is thankful and grateful that her mother has fully come back to her and has shared her quiet wisdom.
Sarah agonizes over what she should do with her life. When the opportunity arises for a job at the ski resort, she feels that God answered her prayers for guidance. “I’ve been wishing on stars, knocking on wood, picking up pennies, and praying to God about one thing or another my whole life, but never have I received a more obvious, direct, and spine-tingling response before now” (296).
Unlock all 60 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Lisa Genova
