Mutual Interest Summary, Characters and Themes | Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith is a historical novel set around the turn of the 20th century, talking about themes of identity, ambition, and societal constraints. 

It follows two main characters—Vivian Lesperance, a fiercely independent young woman eager to escape her stifling family and reinvent herself in New York’s elite social circles, and Oscar Schmidt, a closeted queer businessman battling shame and secrecy while building a cosmetics empire. Their lives intersect in a calculated marriage that becomes both a partnership and a fragile facade. Through evocative storytelling, the book explores the cost of survival in a world demanding conformity, the sacrifices behind success, and the search for authenticity amid societal masks.

Summary

The novel opens with a prelude reflecting on the Year Without a Summer (1816), a historical event caused by volcanic eruptions that led to widespread climatic upheaval. This metaphor sets the tone for a story about hidden transformations and the slow but inevitable unraveling of carefully constructed lives.

In the late 1890s, Vivian Lesperance is a spirited seventeen-year-old in Utica, New York, chafing against her emotionally abusive and embittered parents. Vivian’s home is filled with grudges and disappointments, and she yearns to break free from the bleak prospects laid out for her.

The bicycle, an emblem of freedom and rebellion, sparks a sense of possibility during a ride with her friend Patience Stone. This newfound liberty ignites Vivian’s determination to forge her own path beyond the confines of family expectations.

Vivian’s initial attempts at romance are fraught with defiance rather than affection, illustrated by her early relationship with Ruf Thomas, a flawed apprentice marked by alcohol dependency. Meanwhile, Patience’s move to New York City brings Vivian along, plunging her into the intoxicating yet unforgiving world of high society.

In the city, Vivian learns the art of social navigation: mastering etiquette, fashion, and the subtle manipulations required to climb the social ladder. She forges key relationships, including a friendship with Electra Blake, a society columnist who becomes instrumental in shaping Vivian’s public image.

Vivian’s world expands further when she meets Sofia Bianchi, a captivating Italian singer whose glamorous lifestyle pulls Vivian into artistic and indulgent circles. Their passionate romance immerses Vivian in luxury and creative expression.

But it also reveals the limits of living as an extension of another person’s orbit. Seeking control over her own destiny, Vivian eventually parts ways with Sofia, intent on cultivating a persona marked by mystery, ambition, and self-reinvention.

Parallel to Vivian’s journey is the story of Oscar Schmidt, introduced in an interlude. Oscar grows up in Ohio under the oppressive weight of religious guilt and familial expectations, struggling with his queer identity in a hostile environment.

His escape comes through relentless work in the soap industry, where he channels his shame into professional success. Moving to New York, Oscar carefully constructs a respectable public image while secretly exploring his sexuality in the city’s hidden queer spaces.

Their worlds collide at a society garden party, where Vivian’s sharp wit and Oscar’s business acumen set the stage for a pragmatic alliance. Vivian, valuing her independence but recognizing opportunity, agrees to a marriage of convenience with Oscar—a union based on mutual benefit rather than romantic love.

Oscar, needing social cover, accepts the arrangement, though both maintain emotional distance and separate private lives. Together, they transform Oscar’s modest business into a booming cosmetics empire.

Vivian uses her social savvy to craft elegant branding and cultivate influential connections, while Oscar oversees operations and production. Publicly, they are a powerful couple, admired for their success and apparent harmony.

Privately, however, their relationship is a delicate balancing act of secrecy and compartmentalization. Vivian continues discreet affairs with women, and Oscar frequents queer clubs, both haunted by the fear of exposure.

The veneer of stability begins to crack when Sofia reenters Vivian’s life, stirring old emotions and complicating the careful equilibrium. Simultaneously, Oscar’s closeted identity and the pressure to maintain appearances threaten to unravel the empire they built together.

The fragile alliance faces mounting tensions as ambition, desire, and societal expectations collide. The narrative closes with a reflective postlude, contemplating the emotional costs behind their achievements.

Vivian and Oscar’s union stands as a testament to survival strategies in a rigid society, yet it also underscores the sacrifices of intimacy and authenticity demanded by such reinvention. Their legacy endures, but their connection remains complicated—a partnership forged from necessity rather than passion.

It is emblematic of the bittersweet compromises faced by those who must navigate the treacherous waters of identity, power, and belonging.

Characters

Vivian Lesperance

Vivian is the fiery and determined protagonist whose journey anchors much of the narrative. Beginning as a restless seventeen-year-old constrained by an emotionally abusive and bitter family in Utica, New York, she is defined by her yearning for freedom and self-definition.

The bicycle ride with her friend Patience marks a symbolic and literal break from oppression, setting Vivian on a path of rebellion and self-reinvention. She possesses a keen intellect and social adaptability, which allows her to infiltrate the elite New York society circles despite her obscure origins.

Vivian’s early romantic encounters, such as with Ruf Thomas, are more acts of defiance than genuine affection, signaling her struggle to assert control over her own life. Her passionate affair with Sofia Bianchi, the glamorous Italian singer, further reveals Vivian’s longing for both indulgence and intimacy.

Ultimately, she realizes that she cannot exist merely in someone else’s shadow. Vivian’s relationship with Oscar Schmidt in Part II exemplifies her strategic mind; their marriage is less about romance and more about mutual benefit and survival in a rigid society.

Throughout the story, Vivian embodies reinvention and the cost of personal freedom when identity must be performed as a social mask.

Oscar Schmidt

Oscar Schmidt’s character offers a compelling contrast to Vivian’s but shares themes of concealment and survival. Raised in a conservative Ohio environment under the heavy influence of his grandmother Hester, Oscar wrestles with deep-seated guilt and religious condemnation over his queer identity.

His life is marked by internalized shame and a rigid compartmentalization between his public persona as a successful businessman in the soap and cosmetics industry and his secret nocturnal existence in queer spaces. Moving from Ohio to Cincinnati and eventually New York, Oscar channels his anxieties into obsessive work ethic and industry success.

His meeting and subsequent marriage to Vivian is a complex alliance born out of necessity rather than affection. While he appreciates the social cover the marriage provides, he struggles with emotional distance and the cost of living a life of deception.

Oscar’s dual existence underscores the pressures placed on queer individuals in a heteronormative society, highlighting the sacrifices made for social acceptance and economic security. His gradual unraveling as pressures mount brings to light the fragility of identities constructed on secrecy.

Sofia Bianchi

Sofia represents both glamour and emotional complexity in Vivian’s life. As an Italian singer immersed in artistic and luxurious circles, she embodies a world of passion and indulgence that Vivian initially craves.

Their relationship is marked by intense highs and moments of tenderness, positioning Sofia as a key figure in Vivian’s early reinvention in New York society. However, Sofia also symbolizes a tether to a life where Vivian remains a secondary figure, a satellite orbiting around someone else’s brilliance.

This dynamic eventually becomes untenable for Vivian, leading to their separation. Sofia’s later reappearance complicates the tenuous balance Vivian and Oscar have established, injecting unresolved emotional tension and challenging the fragile facades they both maintain.

Patience Stone

Though less central than Vivian or Oscar, Patience plays a pivotal role in Vivian’s awakening and development. As Vivian’s friend and bicycle companion, Patience introduces her to the exhilarating taste of freedom and rebellion.

Her journey to New York City, taking Vivian along, acts as a catalyst for Vivian’s transformation from a constrained young woman to a socially savvy player. Patience embodies companionship and the possibility of solidarity amidst restrictive social norms, contrasting with the more transactional or fraught relationships Vivian later engages in.

Themes

Historical Catastrophes as Metaphors for Personal and Societal Transformation

The novel opens with the historical backdrop of the Year Without a Summer, an event that transcends mere environmental disaster to become a powerful metaphor for delayed, cascading consequences affecting individuals and society alike. 

This theme explores how large-scale historical ruptures—like volcanic eruptions, economic depressions, or cultural upheavals—leave lingering shadows on personal identities and social dynamics.

Vivian and Oscar’s lives unfold under this metaphorical climate, illustrating how generational trauma and external catastrophes influence emotional landscapes, societal roles, and the boundaries of possibility across time. 

The novel argues that history’s weight is not only collective but deeply personal, shaping aspirations, fears, and the boundaries of possibility across time.

Queer Identity, Social Conformity, and the Cost of Secrecy in a Repressive Era

Oscar’s storyline intricately maps the fraught navigation of queer identity within the rigid moral structures of early 20th-century America. His existence is marked by a duality between the public persona of a respectable businessman and the private reality of a closeted man haunted by religious guilt and societal condemnation.

This theme dives deeply into the psychological fragmentation caused by enforced secrecy, highlighting how queer individuals have historically been forced into compartmentalized lives to survive. The novel probes the emotional toll of such concealment, not just on personal happiness but on intimate relationships and professional ambitions.

Oscar’s story serves as a broader commentary on the compromises demanded by heteronormative capitalism and the resilience required to carve out spaces of authenticity in hostile environments.

The Strategic Performance of Gender and Class as Tools for Survival and Social Mobility

Vivian’s arc is a sophisticated study in the performance and manipulation of gender roles and class markers as means of empowerment and escape. From the constrictive environment of her oppressive family to the opulent salons of New York high society, Vivian learns to wield fashion, charm, and social intelligence as weapons and shields.

This theme examines how gender and class are not fixed states but fluid performances, subject to deliberate construction and reinvention. The bicycle as a symbol of freedom underscores the tension between physical liberation and societal expectation.

Vivian’s journey critiques the limitations imposed on women’s autonomy and exposes the cost of navigating patriarchal power structures through artifice and social cunning. 

Her rise challenges the idea of innate social standing, emphasizing adaptability as a survival strategy in a stratified world.

Alliances Between Ambition, Intimacy, and Emotional Authenticity in Partnerships Forged for Power Rather Than Love

The marriage between Vivian and Oscar embodies a complex exploration of partnership as a transactional alliance rather than an intimate union. 

Their relationship reveals the intricate balance between mutual benefit and personal sacrifice, underscoring how ambition can both unite and alienate individuals.

The novel illuminates the ways in which strategic marriages—often shaped by economic and social calculation—function as survival mechanisms for outsiders attempting to penetrate elite circles. However, it also lays bare the emotional isolation and longing that such arrangements can entail.

The tension between public performance and private reality in their partnership critiques the commodification of relationships and the emotional costs of maintaining façades. 

This theme questions the possibility of authentic connection within structures predicated on utility and secrecy.

The Illusory Promise of Self-Made Identity Amid Persistent Social Constraints

Throughout the novel, reinvention emerges as a central, paradoxical theme. Vivian and Oscar each strive to remake themselves, shedding past identities and embracing new social roles.

Yet their transformations are always circumscribed by the enduring forces of class, gender, sexuality, and societal expectation. 

The narrative explores how reinvention can be both empowering and imprisoning—offering hope and agency, but also necessitating erasure, compromise, and performance.

This theme critiques the myth of the self-made individual by highlighting the invisible barriers and emotional sacrifices inherent in social mobility. 

Ultimately, the story suggests that while reinvention is possible, it often entails living a divided life, where true authenticity remains elusive amid the demands of survival and acceptance.