No Two Persons: A Novel

“‘The trick for a writer,’ the professor continued, ‘is to take those eternal questions, those known bits and pieces, and put them together in a way that helps us see our world in a different light. That’s where you come in.’”

Professor Roberts encourages Alice’s belief in writing. His ideas about writing echo Alice’s. She has always felt that writing can change lives and hearts. Professor Roberts’s words present writing as a form of healing, renewal, and clarity. Alice embraces and enacts these principles via Theo. Therefore, the professor’s words foreshadow the reach of Alice’s first novel.

“Sometimes what she wrote felt more real than truth. But maybe that’s what writing was, in the end—a way to get to the bedrock, the oxygen. What humans are willing to do to, and for, each other.”

Alice relies on writing to ease her grief after Peter dies of an overdose. She doesn’t know how to logically explain her brother’s death. She can’t make sense of her loss alone and can’t eradicate her sorrow. Writing Theo’s story lends her perspective on her own story. She discovers that writing is a way to ask questions, explore worlds, and seek understanding. Writing is an avenue out of despair and towards renewal. Writing is a lesson in empathy and understanding.

“You’re not crazy, the words on the page said. I know you. Did you write this for me? she wondered. And she felt the tightness inside her begin to loosen.”

Reading Alice’s Theo manuscript validates Lara’s experience. Before reading the draft, Lara feels isolated and misunderstood. However, Alice’s words speak to Lara. Theo’s story authenticates her story and eases her loneliness. The book connects her to others and delivers her from isolation.

“It was something she would tell her son later, when he was learning to read himself—how your first read of an extraordinary book is something you can only experience once.”

Lara anticipates sharing books, reading, and stories with her infant son when he grows up. She wants to pass these passions on to Teddy because reading has transformed her life and perspective. She wants to teach Teddy about the magic and power of stories, which are mysterious and ephemeral but lasting and transporting. She regards stories as a form of connection with others.

“It was a puzzle his mind could play with whenever his thoughts started to head in bad directions.”

Rowan discovers the transporting power of stories after he quits acting. He remakes himself when he begins narrating audiobooks. The new vocation distracts him from his psychological and emotional troubles. Reading, analyzing, and inhabiting his assigned stories relieves Rowan’s internal tension. In this way, the stories grant him perspective and empathy, drawing him out of himself.

“Is it always like this? he wondered. Can we never truly connect?”

Reading Theo inspires Rowan’s questions about alienation and intimacy. He is a seasoned reader and narrator when he receives the Theo assignment, and he is struck by the fictional novel’s unconventional narration and form, which suggest to him that contemporary society precludes authentic connection. Bauermeister challenges Rowan’s ideas throughout No Two Stories. Her novel proves that connection is difficult but possible if the individual tries to empathize with others.

“Miranda loved the art that lay in the overlap, the mixing of metaphors and genres.”

Miranda’s artistic sensibilities convey Bauermeister’s theses about art and story. The way that Miranda sees art resonates throughout No Two Persons. Like Miranda’s sculpture, Bauermeister’s novel presents intersecting narratives. Bauermeister also mixes metaphors and genres. Miranda’s creative viewpoints are key to Bauermeister’s overarching structure, style, and form.

“But now, looking at the child’s handwriting, the word, Miranda had an idea of her own.”

Miranda finds inspiration for a new project by exploring an old house. The historical and dilapidated structure is an avenue into the past and the future. The word “mine” on the wallpaper inspires Miranda. She uses this remnant of a past life to create a new life: her statue.

“This new piece was different. Its materials reached back into a past that wasn’t hers, a history she could hold in her hands, solid and unmistakable—and then, through her imagination, the pieces changed meaning, becoming hers, becoming her.”

Miranda’s sculpture is symbolic of reinvention. Miranda gathers the refuse from past lives and resurrects these remnants by turning them into her sculpture. The sculpture conveys the transformative power of art and story; it captures the role of the artist in this rejuvenation process.

“Under was where the quiet was. Where you couldn’t hear the glass hit the wall, couldn’t hear your name being called.”

Throughout Tyler’s life, water offers him a reprieve from his stifling reality. When he swims and dives, his troubles disappear. The sports are a way for him to escape and to hide. When water later endangers Tyler’s life, he must confront his sorrows and explore new terrains.

“‘Healing is a choice, Tyler,’ she said.”

Tyler must face his fears and confront his loneliness after his girlfriend, Saylor, breaks up with him. Saylor still loves Tyler. However, she knows that she can’t save Tyler if he doesn’t want to be saved. Her words foreshadow Tyler’s coming revelations. At the end of his chapter, he realizes that he has survived and wants to go on living. He voluntarily chooses healing after reading Theo.

“When Tyler finally opened his eyes, the living room had grown dark. […] He was surprised to find himself there, not tossed up on some beach, half-drowned. But he had not drowned; he was here. He was alone, but in a way that meant perhaps he didn’t have to be.”

Tyler feels hopeless after his diving accident, unmoored by his newly restrictive circumstances. His inability to swim and dive is a form of death for him. However, reading Theo resurrects Tyler. Theo’s story changes Tyler’s outlook on his life and relationships. He finds renewal, hope, and inspiration from Alice’s writing. He doesn’t have to succumb to his despair any longer. He can choose life and love instead.

“Nola knew lost. Over the past five years, she’d watched her mother lose herself one piece at a time—love, compassion, imagination disappearing like paper maps flying out a speeding car window, replaced by guilt and grief and an overwhelming desire for oblivion.”

Theo’s story resonates with Nola’s story. Nola hasn’t experienced the same things as Theo, but Theo’s encounters with loss echo Nola’s. Therefore, reading Theo comforts and validates Nola. Nola is misunderstood by her classmates and peers. She has also lost her family. In Theo, she finds a friend who sees her.

“All those fictional lives she had opened herself to, taking on their experiences, their emotions, like the good octopus she was—and the one story she had refused was her mother’s.”

Reading Theo grants Nola perspective on her traumatic past and maternal relationship. She has relied on stories to escape and make sense of reality for as long as she can remember. However, reading Theo is most transformative. Analyzing, discussing, and reflecting upon Theo’s story clarifies Nola’s lingering familial questions. In particular, the book gives her empathy for her mother.

“She pulled the book out and left it on the bench. She’d find another copy.”

Nola is sharing Theo’s story when she leaves her copy of Theo for the gardener. She wants to thank him for his kindness. Giving him her book connects him to her. The image of the book on the bench captures the way stories connect disparate lives. Nola is also expressing gratitude to the gardener via the book.

“Great books often started that way—the glimpse of a character opening to astonishing stories. How could you resist?”

Kit regards his relationship with Annalise as a new story. He sees their romance as a beautiful, hopeful beginning. This line captures Kit’s perception of the world. He interprets his experiences through books. He understands his world according to the stories he’s read. He applies literary principles to his lived reality. Therefore, books are a navigational tool for Kit’s character.

“‘It’s weird,’ she said, ‘when one thing can be so many things at once, you know?’”

Alice confesses her complex relationship with Theo when she meets Kit at the bookstore. She is addressing her fear of losing control of her character, Theo, since publishing the novel. She’s glad that her novel has done well and reached others, but she is still reconciling herself with the idea that her book lives beyond her mind.

“Maybe not consciously, but that was the beauty of books, wasn’t it? They took you places you didn’t know you needed to go.”

Kit attributes his recent life changes to Alice’s novel, Theo. He believes that the book is responsible for his decision to leave Annalise, to reconnect with his family, to reinvest in his work, and to move to a new home. The book has changed his life because it has altered his perspective on himself and his relationships. In this way, Theo symbolizes the power of any and all books.

“It’s not a story without the unexpected, Abigail always said. But even she had to admit that some plot twists were better than others.”

William feels unmoored, alone, and hopeless after his wife, Abigail, died. In the narrative present of his storyline, William is haunted by Abigail’s voice. When he feels stuck, he conjures her words for comfort and guidance. He tries to apply her ideas to his current circumstances. He wants to embrace the unexpected as Abigail would because he longs to keep Abigail’s spirit alive. He is desperate to preserve her memory. However, William is still reconciling with his loss at this juncture of his story.

“Reading Theo was a slow process, he found, not only because of the brain fog, which was slipping in more often now, but because each word Abigail had written in the margins was an opening, a trail to follow, and he wanted every one of them.”

William finds hope when he starts reading his late wife’s copy of Theo. He loves Theo’s story, but he is most delighted by Abigail’s marginalia. Reading Theo gives him a new fictional world to explore and offers him a new connection with his late wife. Indeed, he feels as if he’s sharing a new conversation with Abigail by reading her annotations.

“Picking up a book was a decision: I’m going to go away. The exciting possibility: I may not come back the same.”

Juliet regards books as an escape from reality. Like many of the novel’s primary characters, Juliet experiences new worlds, lives, and adventures by reading. Juliet’s regard for books captures their transformative and transporting powers.

“She loved that moment, always had. Her sudden clarity that this book would affect not just her, but others.”

Madeline Armstrong has devoted her life to books, working as a literary agent for over 50 years, because books connect her with others. She became a liaison between numerous authors, their stories, and their future readers. Madeline does delight in independent reading, but the promise of sharing her books with countless others is most gratifying for her. Through her work, Madeline has changed people’s lives, conversed with strangers, and fostered literary networks.

“These books, both containers and uncontainable. Who would take care of them?”

Madeline sees her books as treasures and as companions. She fears letting go of her books because their connection to her life will be forgotten. Madeline’s worries about the fate of her book collection convey the books’ importance to her. These lines also capture Madeline’s book collection as an extension of her life.