The Celebrants

Part 3 focuses on Marielle’s progression from losing track of her own identity through her roles as a wife and mother. While she acknowledges that she’s the only member of the group to have raised a child, she feels that she doesn’t have a life of her own. When Jordan asks if she feels like her “life has fallen apart,” she replies: “WHAT LIFE? […] Mia will be off to college soon. Our friends were Max’s. I have no career. Look at all of you! You’re so successful. I haven’t accomplished anything” (95). The transformation effected after Marielle’s funeral is one of the most significant in the novel, signaled by the change in location as she moves from Washington, DC, to Oregon and begins a new career with an animal rescue.

In addition to functioning as a significant character arc, Marielle’s difficulty in reaffirming her own identity advances the theme of Identity Originating in Self Versus Others. The conceit of the novel, living funerals during times of crisis, is based on the idea that those closest to an individual can help them through difficult times by affirming their identity. Even when one of the group members feels like they’ve lost themselves, their friends still see the heart of who they are. For example, Naomi tells Marielle: “You’re upset about the past. Your marriage. Alec, still. You’re stressed about the future. What your life will be when Mia moves out. Who are you alone? But really, there is only the here and now. There is only the Marielle at this table” (111). As a character, Marielle exemplifies both the positive and negative aspects of identity defined by others. She has lost her identity in part due to her focus on her role within her marriage and as a mother. However, her friends are also able to help her reclaim her identity by telling her how they see her.

Throughout the novel, Rowley uses inside jokes to both create a comedic tone and to characterize the group’s friendship. The recurrence of inside jokes across different parts enables the reader to share in the jokes. For example, Rowley introduces the Courtney scale in Part 2: “at least one of them had said that everything could fall into one of three categories: Too Courtney Cox, too Courtney Love, or too Courtney Thorne-Smith” (55). In Part 3, the same inside joke reappears: “‘All of this is too Courtney Cox,’ [Craig] said, looking again around Sur la Vie. ‘Oh my god,’ Naomi said. She hadn’t thought about the scale of Courtneys in years” (75). Because the reader has the same information about the joke as Naomi does, Rowley invites the reader to be another member of the group by virtue of a shared experience, making the narrative more immersive.

Similarly, the interlude sections often include a reference to something that occurs in the section to follow. The Part 1 interlude concludes as the Jordans reminisce about how the pact started and the reason that their group text message chain is titled “NANA’S HUNGRY LITTLE PIE EATERS” (19); the Part 2 interlude concludes with Jordan gifting Jordy the Ouija board, a reference to Marielle’s funeral; in Part 3, Jordy asks, “Remember Mexico? You were meant to have nine lives” (130), the context of which is explained in the next section of the text with the skydiving incident at Naomi’s funeral. The Part 4 interlude concludes with a vague allusion to the secret that Jordy reveals in Part 5 at Craig’s funeral: that he knew Alec had AIDS. These allusions to events that are in the past for Jordy and Jordan, but which haven’t yet occurred in the novel, produce foreshadowing. As well as creating suspense for the reader, these references function similarly to the inside jokes: Rowley gives the reader the reference before the narrative explains it, thereby inviting the reader to share in the group experience of reminiscing about past events.