One Whole and Perfect Day Analysis

Here's the thing about Sydney: The place is huge. With a population of over four million, the area surrounding the city is made up of six hundred and fifty suburbs. Having said that, let's think ab...

One Whole and Perfect Day starts off basically like any other young adult novel: with a teenager being generally dissatisfied with her life, social status, parental relationships, appearance, and p...

"Can a person always be a teenager?" Lily writes in her lecture notes on Hamlet near the beginning of the book. "Or always middle-aged? (Like me?)" (6.9). Obviously, One Whole and Perfect Day...

For a book about a dysfunctional family, there's a certain element of magic that shines through the Samsons' various predicaments. Stan may say that "Coincidences do happen" (34.78), but the sheer...

Linked stories are a literary genre where an author tells a larger story by zeroing in on the individual lives of a variety of related characters. James Joyce popularized the genre with his story c...

Whether we're talking about Jay Gatsby, Harry Potter, or even Ariel from The Little Mermaid, every great protagonist has one thing in common: Each has something he or she wants desperately, and is...

"Hullo, Dad" (42.69). It's a simple last line, but Lily's decision to talk to the father she's been so angry at and estranged from proves her tremendous growth from the beginning of the story to th...

One Whole and Perfect Day has relatable characters and a plot that's easy to get swept up into. It also, however, has so many characters that you may sometimes feel like a kindergarten teacher taki...

Not Your Average Family"They're awkward and they're Aussie, their daughter's kind of bossy, they're one peculiar posse, the Samson family." (Bah-na-na-na! Snap! Snap!) Seriously though: As the cu...

Clarke's next-door neighbor in her college dorm, who enjoyed cleaning, inspired the character of Jessaline. (Source.) Lily's house actually exists—it's the home of one of Clarke's friends. Like i...

Lily's attempt at making out with Daniel's yearbook picture (10.29) is about as hot as this book gets. And since kissing paper doesn't fog up any windows, we mean things stay nice and cool in this...

William Shakespeare (4.10, 40.41)The Romantic poets (4.10)Gertrude Stein, The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook (4.14)Emily Brontë (4.17; 8.4, 8.5, 8.7; 9.4; 20.2; 33.1, 33.41, 33.43, 33.44; 37.2; 41.41)Ro...