The Night We Lost Him

Nora is this novel’s primary narrator and the only child from Liam’s first marriage. She has a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and visual arts and a master’s degree in architecture. Her educational path is an important aspect of her characterization: Combining visual arts with neuroscience and architecture reveals both Nora’s intellect and her creativity. She wants to use design principles and her deep understanding of people to create spaces that are both beautiful and utilitarian.

She is as career oriented as her father and brothers, but her career is an expression of creativity rather than a path toward material success. She notes that “[a]s an architect, [she] often think[s] in terms of puzzle pieces” (104), and that sentiment reflects her interest in the process of a project rather than in the compensation she will get for its completion. She eschews her father’s wealth-minded personal philosophy, and her professional goals reflect that. Nora chose to pay her own way through school and forged her own career path rather than taking financial assistance or a job at Noone from her father. These decisions also reflect Nora’s personal philosophy and further cement her as a character dedicated to the enjoyment of work rather than its financial rewards.

Nora is also characterized by her struggles with emotional connectivity. She inherits from Liam an inability to truly commit to romantic relationships, and this creates distance between her and her partners. It is not until the end of the novel that she is able to fully focus on her fiancé, Jack, and she resembles both her father and her brothers because of this. Despite her difficulty connecting romantically or to her father, Nora is a character who values relationships; the grief that she feels after losing her mother and later her father is profound. She struggles with that grief for much of the narrative, and this novel is in many ways a meditation on the difficulty that adult children face when their parents pass away.

Sam, Tommy’s twin, is one of Liam’s children from his second marriage. He is characterized initially through his dedication to his career. He works at Noone Properties with his father and brother, and like the other Noone men, he places more stock on his work life than on his personal relationships. Despite being engaged to Morgan, he is still in love with the ex-girlfriend, who felt that he could not commit to her. Like his father, brother, and sister, Sam struggles to maintain romantic relationships because he spends so much time at work but also because he views himself through the framework of his career rather than love or family.

Sam is also, at least initially, self-involved and arrogant. Nora observes, “Like everything Sam seemed to be concerned with, it was about himself” (17). This attitude is the result of Sam having spent so much time focused on career success, and his brother also shows signs of an inflated sense of self-importance. However, Sam is a complex character whose original career hopes in professional sports were dashed by injury. As the novel ends, he has left Noone Properties and hopes to start a new career in professional baseball scouting. Although he spends much of the novel working solely to further his own career interests and make as much money as possible, he ultimately chooses a career path that will be more personally fulfilling and will truly make him happy.

Tommy is Sam’s twin but acts as though his brother is much younger. A high achiever, Tommy completed a JD/MBA right out of college, married his long-term girlfriend, and immediately began to rise through the ranks at Noone Properties, his father’s company. He resembles Nora rather than his twin, but Nora admits that “any similarities end there” (21). Tommy’s role in the narrative is small, but the dominant role that his career plays in his life helps the author explore themes related to identity and fraught family dynamics. Tommy inherits both Liam’s ability to compartmentalize his emotional life and his laser-like focus on work. Tommy’s wife loves him, but she feels sidelined by his career and resents that she will never be as important to him as Noone Properties. Tommy additionally struggles in his sibling relationships, having been taught to value work over his personal life. This trait is something that all three siblings share: Sam, Nora, and Tommy, albeit each in their own way, resent one another and choose to devote their time and energy to their jobs rather than each other. There is some sign at the end of the novel that Tommy and Sam will be able to reconnect, but for the bulk of the narrative, they are at odds.

Jack is Nora’s fiancé. Jack and Nora met in middle school but did not reconnect until they were both adults. He is a chef at Sheet Music, a restaurant near their home that Nora helped design. Jack approaches his culinary career much in the same way that Nora approaches her work in architecture: He is passionate about food and motivated by creativity rather than a desire for material success. Cooking is the way that Jack expresses himself, and his restaurant has a devoted customer base. He and Nora connect over the role that creativity plays in their lives; although they work in different fields, they both derive much of their identity from their creative spirits.

Jack has always been confident and “comfortable in his own skin” (32). Nora finds these qualities appealing, and they have the additional function of providing stability in their relationship. Nora inherited a degree of emotional turmoil from her father, but Jack’s unflappability helps Nora draw strength from his sense of inner calm. Jack proves himself an understanding partner as he weathers Nora’s ups and downs and even tolerates her inappropriate friendship with Elliot, her ex-boyfriend. When Jack takes a step back from his relationship with Nora, he does so to provide her with the space and time that she needs in order to decide how to move forward.

Joe is Liam’s cousin, best friend, and business partner. He is important to the narrative despite being a secondary character who does not see much action. He is characterized primarily in terms of his relationship with Liam. The two are cousins, and Joe moves in with Liam’s family when they are both young. Although Joe is more physically attractive and charismatic, Liam achieves career success first and makes sure that Joe has a role in his company. Their bond is strong, and the men share a deep sense of loyalty to each other. Their friendship is part of the novel’s implication that platonic relationships become an invaluable source of strength and stability for individuals who struggle in romantic relationships.

Joe is also characterized by his ability to keep secrets. He alone knows the full story of Liam and Grace’s relationship, but he keeps that and other facts about their relationship and the company hidden for decades. However, Joe’s secrecy is not presented as a character flaw. Nora and her brother ultimately realize that although Joe has lied to them, “until the end he was trying to protect our father” (266). Joe values friendship as much as Liam, and in keeping Liam’s secrets from everyone, he puts his friendship with Liam above his other relationships.

Cece is a wealthy real estate developer and would-be hotelier whose near purchase of Noone Properties is a key part of the novel’s suspense structure. Although not a principal character, Cece functions centrally in the author’s exploration of themes related to secrecy, wealth, and identity. Cece is defined in part through her work in the real estate industry. She is another character who derives their sense of self primarily through their career, and she adds to the novel’s investigation into the impact that choosing career over family has on individuals.

Cece is also defined through her long-standing friendship with Joe and Liam. Cece is an old friend of Liam and Joe’s, and she dated Liam when he was a young man. The three remained in contact, although Liam and Cece did not harbor feelings for each other; their relationship was entirely platonic in adulthood. Like both Joe and Liam, Cece works too hard to prioritize family and gets strength and stability through friendship rather than romance. She did ultimately begin a romantic relationship with Joe, but it was not until much later in their lives when they had already achieved career success and could focus on their personal lives. Cece is another figure who keeps secrets for Liam. She knows much about his relationship with Grace but does not share it with Liam’s children. Like Joe, she is willing to place distance between herself and other people to protect her friends.