One Italian Summer

During these chapters, Serle builds toward Katy’s development of her own identity and she begins to appreciate herself as an individual. After getting out of the shower after spending the day in Naples, Katy looks at herself in the mirror: “I step out, naked, and survey my body in the mirror. It feels like forever since I’ve looked at myself like this […] I’m bronzed and freckled, and my face looks just a little bit pink” (172-73). Here, Katy views herself similarly to how she first viewed young Carol, which was with admiration for her glowing, sun-kissed skin. Serle utilizes the same imagery to illustrate how Katy no longer situates herself directly next to her mother and actively appreciates her own appearance.

When Katy is at Carol’s apartment, Serle starts to illustrate how Katy now views young Carol as separate from her mother. As she describes Carol’s apartment, Katy says that “Carol’s taste is not my mother’s” (179). By viewing them as separate people, Katy begins to situate her mother as an individual with a life outside of the domestic sphere. Carol is more than a wife and a mother, and it takes Katy seeing her living a completely independent life from Chuck and herself to acknowledge this. In these moments, Katy looks toward young Carol as a friend on her own self-discovery journey. Serle hence emphasizes the complexities of the theme of Mother-Daughter Relationships by examining this relationship beyond the spatial and emotional confines of motherhood.

The revelation that Carol is already a mother begins the dramatic climax of the novel. Katy’s developing independence comes crashing down when she learns that she has already been born. She feels abandoned by Carol, despite never knowing that her mother took time to herself in Italy. She thinks: “She made me in her image, but she forgot the most important part. She forgot that one day she’d leave, that she already had, and then I’d be left with nothing” (201). Katy places all blame on Carol for not only fleeing to Italy but also for dying, reinforcing the theme of Grief as Synonymous With Love. Here, Serle again makes the past meet the present when Katy’s anger parallels the rage she felt during her mom’s final days. In this moment, Katy does not recognize Carol for her humanity; she believes that Carol exists for her, and when this image of perfection is dismantled, Serle draws attention to the character development that Katy had undergone thus far.

Serle extends the dramatic climax surrounding this revelation when Katy walks through a storm into sex with Adam. The rising action has built up toward Katy giving into her desires and exploring herself sexually with Adam. Although Katy previously expressed distaste for cheating on one’s partner, her experience with young Carol has made her realize that life is not as simple as she would like it to be. Adam acts as an emotional release for Katy: “I’ve never had sex like this […]. Everything has been a mirror; everything I’ve seen has been skewed and reflected. None of it has been real” (199). Katy realizes that her perception of life before Positano was distorted by what she wanted to see; however, she begins to accept that life is not perfect, and she pours these emotions physically into her relationship with Adam. He serves as both an outlet for her emotions and as an expression of her desires.

At the end of these chapters, Katy slowly starts to move past her anger to understand Carol’s decisions. This initiates the falling action of the novel. Chuck does not necessarily consider Carol’s career to be “as important as his” (209), and Katy realizes that Carol struggles with the restricting schedule of being a mom and wife. She is expected to conform to societal standards that dictate that a woman’s role is within the household. Although Katy previously saw her mother as embracing this role and being perfect at it, she starts to realize how much of a sacrifice this was for Carol. Katy learns that Carol struggles with her identity just as much as she does. Katy begins to let go of the idealized version of her mother, a point that sets in motion the resolution of the novel’s primary conflict: Katy’s sense of identity in relation to Carol.