The Book of Doors

“Life is like a train that just keeps getting faster and faster and the sooner you realize that, the better. I am hurtling towards the final stop; I know that. But I’ve lived my life and I’ve got no complaints.”

Throughout the novel, several influential characters in Cassie’s life emphasize the importance of enjoying life. This moment early in the novel sets up this guiding thread with Mr. Webber’s appreciation of the art of living. Later, it’s through him that Cassie learns to slow down and appreciate the simple pleasures of being alive.

“Cassie had promised to keep in touch with these people but never had. They were walk-on parts in her life. Although they were lost to her now, those people and those warm, sunny days across Europe were among her happiest memories.”

The idea of “walk-on parts” enhances the motifs put in place through the scene’s exploration of Izzy’s thespian background and puts Cassie’s life into a storytelling framework. This moment lays the groundwork for Cassie’s new adventure traveling the world and recapturing the experiences she thought she had lost.

“With each successive doorway, Cassie was sure that tedious reality would return and steal this fairy tale away from her, but each time she was proved wrong. The world was suddenly wondrous and full of possibility.”

In this moment, Cassie’s new tool is literally and figuratively opening doors in her life, allowing her entrance into a new, transcendent state of being. She considers her opportunities to be a “fairy tale,” again illustrating how Cassie frames her experiences through the lens of story. However, it also communicates a naïveté and oversimplification regarding the risks of her new gift.