Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of infertility, pregnancy loss, child death, abuse, racism, sexism, and anti-gay bias.

“The sign outside read FINE DINING AT FINE VALUE SINCE 1919, and because everyone trusts neon, fulfilling that promise was the duty of the owner.”

This description of the 1996 Lakeside invokes neon as something that is, at once, slightly outdated yet comforting—a description that also applies to the Midwestern supper club in the 1990s as an institution. The Lakeside is not obsolete, but rather old in a manner that suggests history and warmth, in contrast to the inexorable threat of transformative progress.

“‘It’s time, Mariel. At our age, none of us knows how much time we have.’

Mariel hated it when other people played that card, especially on behalf of other old people. In her experience, it was true of everyone, at every age.”

Mariel’s dislike of Hazel’s attempt to guilt her into reconciling with Florence due to Florence’s age foreshadows two revelations, one in Mariel’s past and one in her future. Mariel’s son, Gus, died at the age of three, so she knows that age is not inherently connected to life or death. Similarly, in the last chapters of the novel, it is revealed that Mariel herself dies young after suffering from lung cancer.

“‘Men are fragile, honey,’ Betty said. ‘If I told a man that he had too much to drink and was liable to kill himself, he might regard it as an insult. And men often lose grace and composure when they feel insulted.’”

Though young Florence sees her mother’s flirtation with men as a sign of Betty’s desire for affection, Betty’s comment here suggests that her tactics for managing men’s feelings (in a world unsafe for girls and women) is more strategic than Florence understands. This illustrates the novel’s focus on how different generations have a limited ability to understand each other, particularly as concerns mothers and daughters.