43 pages • 1 hour read
Rebecca SerleIn Five Years
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A 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 26-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary
The results from the surgery confirm the doctor’s initial diagnosis. Dannie hires a wedding planner. Bella initially feels fine during chemotherapy, which is common. David tells Dannie to go to California and that Bella would want her to. As chemo progresses, Bella gets thinner and more drained and is often nauseous. Bella gives Dannie an early birthday gift; it is the eye chart print that Dannie saw hanging in the apartment in her premonition. Dannie asks about the Dumbo apartment, and Bella confirms that she bought it but promises that she won’t ever live there.
Chapter 27 Summary
The chemotherapy becomes more painful and takes a severe toll on Bella’s body. Dr. Shaw warns Dannie that remission is rare in ovarian cancer and that they’re trying to contain it rather than cure it. Bella’s mother plans to take Bella to dinner and a musical, but Dannie protests and says she can’t and shouldn’t go. Bella is angry that Dannie is trying to make all of her decisions for her and tells Dannie that she’s tired of being treated like a child. She tells Dannie to leave and not to come to any more appointments. Devastated, Dannie calls Aaron, sobbing.
Chapter 28 Summary
Aaron takes Dannie to a diner and soothes her, saying that Bella didn’t mean it and needs some time. Dannie lashes out about Bella’s parents, saying they shouldn’t be there because they won’t stay. Aaron says it matters that they’re here now and that love counts even if you won’t be able to rely on it into the future. Aaron tells Dannie that she can call him any time. She leaves to go back to work.
Chapter 29 Summary
As they move into November, Bella still isn’t speaking to Dannie. She goes back to see Dr. Christine, the therapist, and talks about her brother, Michael. Dr. Christine tells Dannie that she is “learning to deal with a life [she] cannot control” (185). Dannie continues to go to the chemo appointments but waits alone in the lobby until she knows Bella is finished. Dr. Shaw sees her in the lobby and takes her to a Starbucks cart to get coffee. Dannie confides in him that she is controlling. Dr. Shaw says that he’s seen this before and that cancer doesn’t change the basic facts of humanity. People are not above feelings and fights just because of the disease.
Dannie flies with Aldridge to California to meet with their clients, two female entrepreneurs who founded a tech company. At dinner, Dannie questions why they’re taking their company public at this time. She can sense that one of them, Anya, isn’t certain about the step.
Chapter 30 Summary
After dinner, Aldridge spots Dannie at the hotel bar. She confides in him that she is controlling and doesn’t think she’s a good person. Aldridge tells her that she’s good at her job because she loves it and that it doesn’t mean she’s a bad person or a bad friend. She thinks about how she’d never considered living in Los Angeles as anything other than failing at New York City, but she finds that she loves how much space there is. She takes a picture of surfers and sends it to Bella.
Chapters 26-30 Analysis
Dannie’s need to control everything comes to a head in her argument with Bella, revealing lifelong patterns that they’ve managed not to directly address before this point. Dannie starts to realize that being in control all of the time isn’t a definite positive and that she’s been missing the ability to be spontaneous and to live in the moment. She is very conscious of the limited time and how quickly it’s passing and despairs of her separation from her dying friend. Both of the people she confides this to—Dr. Shaw and Aldridge—agree but tell her that it’s part of what makes her great and that she simply needs to find a space for balance and letting go.
The fight with Bella makes Dannie doubt her own character and approach to life. She finally discusses Michael’s death in some depth when she sees Dr. Christine, making the direct connection for the reader between her controlling nature and her grief. Even Dannie’s feelings are beyond her control, a fact that she struggles with. Her anger and sadness over the fight, her shame at confronting her own controlling nature, her ambivalence about the wedding, and the genuine happiness she feels at succeeding at her job vie for space and leave her grasping for a single thread to hold onto. Her reflection on the amount of space in Los Angeles reveals how convinced she has been that the life she chose was the correct and most accomplished one.
Related Titles
By Rebecca Serle
