Rebirth and Renewal

One of the novel’s main non-comedic themes is the idea of personal renewal, and perhaps nothing is more emblematic of Miranda’s positive changes in mind and body throughout the novel than her evolution from a self-loathing would-be suicide to an unrecognizably rejuvenated and passionate version of her former self. While at first Miranda relates to the world through her feeling that “I’m dying. Death at thirty-seven” (8), the various forces at work on her behalf, such as magic, lust, and sobriety seem “to be working wonders” (185) for her, in Ellie's eyes, which the reader see for themself. Awad connects Miranda’s uncanny shift away from the nagging sense of “decrepitude” (15) that defines her character in the first part of the novel to the suddenly “Alive. Peppy” (136) version of herself with the springtime season against which the action is set.

Miranda’s renewal...