The Seven Year Slip

James Iwan Ashton meets Clementine seven years in the past in her aunt’s magical apartment. Iwan grew up in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with his mother Vera, his sister Lily, and his grandfather James, who first introduced him to his love of cooking. When he is 25 years old, Iwan sublets Analea’s apartment for the summer to find a job as a dishwasher—something he believes will get him into the competitive world of fine dining. Clementine is enamored by Iwan’s passion for food and dedication to making the perfect meal, which he believes is not about fancy ingredients or preparation but instead should be about memories and experience. He and Clementine seem to understand each other on a deep level and they immediately begin to fall for one another. He gets a job at his grandfather’s favorite restaurant, the Olive Branch, where he later becomes Executive Chef, and where he continues to become more well-known for his work. Though he continually thinks about Clementine over the years, he knows she wouldn’t believe him if he told her how they had met as that moment in her life would be in the future.

By the time he meets Clementine again in the present, Iwan is a world-famous chef who is on the verge of publishing a cookbook and opening his own restaurant. Though his friends continue to call him Iwan, he goes by his grandfather’s name, James, once he starts becoming successful. Clementine also notices how he adopts a new persona as James and, much like her, presents himself how he thinks others want to see him. Clementine “also mentions how she “kept looking for some crack in his facade to see the man I knew underneath” (170). Yet on top of his new polished persona, Clementine is especially concerned with the change she sees in his views and attitude. At the meeting at Strauss & Adder, she immediately notices the changes from the Iwan of seven years prior. She thinks of the man she met in her apartment and thinks that he “was the man who wrote the Eater article. Not this one. And his recipes weren’t hidden behind a skill-set paywall, inaccessible to anyone who didn’t know what jus was” (134). With the change in his views, Clementine sees a striking difference in his passion—the thing that most endeared him to her.

Much like Clementine, Iwan overworks himself as he tries to do what would make his grandfather proud, ignoring what he wants in the process. However, he is also a dynamic character who recognizes this at the end of the novel as he sees the ways his new restaurant appeals to others’ expectations rather than his own passions. Both Iwan and Clementine learn that they need to live for themselves rather than others, showing how they have helped each other grow as characters.

Aunt Analea is like a second mother to Clementine, who idolizes her throughout Analea’s life. Though Analea is only present for one moment in the chronology of the novel, memories of her haunt Clementine throughout the story and influence all of her choices. Clementine saw Analea as “the main character in her own story” (87) and described her as a vivacious and brave woman who always “lived like she was dying” (210). Analea was a performer who starred in one Broadway show before leaving her career because she wanted to. Apartment B4 at the Monroe was her home, yet she discovered its magic on the first day she moved in and met a woman from seven years in the past. Analea quickly fell in love with Vera, yet her heart was broken when she found her in the present and discovered they wanted different things in life. Due to her fear of change, Analea did not pursue a life with Vera, yet they remained friends throughout her life. On New Year's Eve the year before the novel begins, Analea dies by suicide just after speaking to Clementine about plans for an upcoming trip. Clementine often compares the way she died to the way she lived—like every moment was her last.

As with everything else about her aunt, Analea’s death greatly affects Clementine, who is determined to be nothing like her because she was so hurt by her actions. She determines that she won’t live her life recklessly like Analea, yet in doing so, Clementine remains stagnant and her life begins to mirror Analea’s after she lost Vera. While Analea’s fear of change greatly influences Clementine, she is also influenced by her passion for life and her determination to live every moment like it was her last, especially toward the end of the novel. Even after her death, Analea stays with Clementine in everything she does and Clementine describes Analea in the final chapters by saying “She lived because she loved, and she lived because she was loved, and what a lovely lifetime she gave us” (264).