Julie and Russell’s House

This flow follows the house from an unaffordable aspiration into a source of marital conflict, separation, and eventual rebuilding elsewhere.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A House Built on Hope

An Unaffordable Replica Borrowed Plans Julie and Russell build a house modeled on Hank and Lily’s home, using the same plans and contractor. Julie calls the house a tax shelter and imagines features they cannot yet afford. Warning Ignored Russell leaves a secure job for a project whose funding fails to arrive. Hank sees the financial danger, but Lily asks him to let the couple fail on their own terms.

The Unfinished Drive

A House Without Completion Visible Strain Hank sees an unpaved driveway, unfinished landscaping, and a tarp over the chimney. The construction site looks increasingly like evidence that the couple has run out of money. A Familiar Reflection Because the house resembles his own, Hank experiences their financial risk as a possible image of his life. He is unable to dismiss the distress as merely Julie’s problem.

The Eye and the Separation

A Marriage Breaks Injury and Demand Hank finds Julie with one eye badly bruised and hears that Russell shoved her before she fell. Julie wants Russell out of the house and goes to stay with her parents. Uncertain Responsibility Hank dislikes the possibility that a man he likes has harmed his daughter, but he accepts her request for help. The unfinished house becomes the setting for a rupture that no amount of financial assistance can repair.

Russell Explains the Chair

The Argument Reconstructed An Object Becomes a Test Russell says that Julie brought home a chair she had bought for three hundred dollars, even though their finances were collapsing. He felt that she valued the chair more than their marriage when she refused to get rid of it. A Shove and a Fall In anger, Russell took Julie by the shoulders and moved her aside. She fell against a stereo cabinet, and he has been unable to decide how much blame belongs to him.

A Chance in Atlanta

Distance and Reconsideration Separation Deepens Hank finds Russell in Meg Quigley’s bed, adding betrayal and anger to the story of the marriage. Rather than leave him in Railton, Hank sends him to Atlanta to pursue a job and gives him money for expenses. A Reunion Begins After the house is rented, Julie joins Russell in Atlanta. They find work and begin considering a home together again, though their future finances remain uncertain.

the autumn before the novel’s present

early April, during Hank’s run toward Allegheny Wells

several days after the first visit to the house

the evening Russell returns to talk to Hank

near the end, after Hank finds Russell at Meg’s apartment