The Shell Seekers

Olivia Keeling is Penelope’s middle child. Out of Penelope’s children, Olivia shares the most similarities with her mother, but she embodies many opposite attributes as well. Career-oriented and independent, Olivia is smart with her money and is determined to always care of herself. Penelope was much the same, but being from a different generation, Penelope’s need for independence was trapped behind the facade of a failing marriage. Olivia is clearly the most mature of the siblings, and she constantly becomes the voice of reason throughout the ordeal of Penelope’s failing health and eventual death.

Olivia’s life story enriches and parallels her mother’s in many ways. Olivia experiences a great romance just as Penelope did, but unlike her mother, Olivia goes into her romance with the understanding that it will not last forever. Olivia’s independence requires that she remain free of such commitments, and she puts this restriction on her love for Cosmo even as she shares his life in Ibiza. Olivia’s experience with loss is therefore self-imposed, but losing Cosmo impacts her just as profoundly as losing Richard impacts Penelope. They both look back on the love they lost with fondness and grief, and they both move on with their lives with a new strength gained in part from the happiness they experienced with their partners, and with a sense of independence that is an important part of their characters.

In addition to maintaining a healthy, respectful relationship with her mother, Olivia is also the voice of reason at the end of the novel. Without Olivia present at the reading of the will to rein in the behavior of her brother and sister, Penelope’s last wishes might not have been honored in the spirit with which she offered them. Similarly, when Antonia announces her marriage to Danus, Olivia doesn’t judge her by her own experiences and even looks forward to the idea of being a surrogate grandmother. Olivia, like Penelope, is a character formed by the world in which she lives. Olivia is part of the yuppie movement that took place in the 1980s, and her life is a product of the intense focus on career that came with this movement.

Richard Lomax is Penelope’s primary love interest in this novel. He is an educated man who is more like Penelope’s father, Lawrence, than her chosen husband, Ambrose. Richard is knowledgeable about art and spends long afternoons speaking to Lawrence in ways that are nostalgic of Lawrence’s youth when he spent time with fellow artists. Richard is kind and caring, and he is sensitive to the people who populate Penelope’s world. Richard goes out of his way to be accepted by these people and to make himself a comfortable part of her social circles.

By contrast, Ambrose Keeling is a greedy, conventionally raised man who views the world from the perspective of personal gain. Ambrose falls in love with Penelope not because he admires her as a person but because he believes that her father’s assets hint at wealth that doesn’t actually exist. Ambrose wants to be wealthy without working for that wealth. After the war, Ambrose’s behavior makes it clear that he lacks ambition, for he goes to work for his father’s publishing company and spends all his money to feed a gambling habit. Ambrose’s poor habits rob his own children of their stability, and he allows Penelope to sell her father’s assets to provide for the family.

Richard and Ambrose are two very different men who shape Penelope’s character as she moves into adulthood. Ambrose makes her a mother, and the challenges that his bad habits create for his family ultimately teach her resiliency. By contrast, Richard shows Penelope what true love really is and provides her with bright moments of happiness in an otherwise dismal period of time.

Antonia Hamilton is the daughter of Cosmo Hamilton and is a friend to Penelope and Olivia. Antonia represents a new version of Penelope and Olivia, and her life implies that the next generation is always a renewal of life and love. While Antonia was raised in the 1970s and 1980s, she has many qualities that are like those of both Penelope and Olivia. Antonia is quiet and intelligent, and she is often overly kind to those around her, just like Penelope is. Antonia is also independent, strong, and resilient, like both Penelope and Olivia. Antonia’s personality is thus a mix of the most positive qualities of her friends, and the pattern of her life also blends the most positive elements of Penelope’s and Olivia’s lives, for while she does choose to marry and have a family, she also chooses to be a partner in her husband’s business rather than just his wife.

In a third reprisal of a great love affair, Antonia moves in with Penelope and promptly falls in love with her gardener, Danus. In Antonia, Penelope sees herself and remembers her days of romance with Richard Lomax. For Olivia, watching Antonia with Danus is more of a mother-daughter relationship because of Olivia’s connection with Antonia’s father, Cosmo. Antonia is the next generation, a source of renewal for Olivia as she finds herself looking forward to the prospect of participating in the lives of Antonia’s future children.

Danus is quiet, intelligent young man who comes to work as a gardener for Penelope in the last weeks of her life. Danus began his adult pursuits by studying law to become a lawyer like his father because he felt pressured by the loss of his brother to continue the family profession. However, after Danus was misdiagnosed as having epilepsy, he pursued a career in gardening and dreams of owning his own business. When Danus pursues a romantic relationship with Antonia, he comes to remind Penelope of the great love of her life, Richard. Combining these two things in Danus creates a motif that supports the theme Experiencing Great Love and Great Loss. At the end of the novel, he and Antonia get married and decide to start a gardening business together.