Some Other Time Summary, Characters and Themes
Some Other Time by Angela Brown is a deeply reflective and emotionally rich novel that explores the complexities of love, identity, and family through the lens of midlife transition.
Angela Brown crafts a narrative that centers on Ellie Grace Adams, a woman confronting the unraveling of her long marriage and the shifting dynamics with her daughter as she navigates a reunion in Florida. The story delves into themes of emotional distance, self-discovery, and the bittersweet nature of change, capturing the quiet moments where past memories meet uncertain futures. Brown’s nuanced writing invites readers to witness the tender and sometimes painful process of letting go and finding new beginnings beyond familiar roles.
Summary
Ellie Grace Adams, approaching fifty, embarks on a journey with her husband, Jonah, to Florida for a family reunion filled with both anticipation and anxiety. Their destination is Ellie’s aging parents’ retirement condo, where their daughter Maggie, now a college student, is also present.
The trip becomes a crucible for long-simmering tensions as Ellie reflects on the emotional distance in her marriage, the changing relationship with her daughter, and the evolving meaning of her own identity beyond the roles of wife and mother.
From the outset, Ellie’s anxiety manifests physically and mentally: fear of flying, lost luggage, and the oppressive Florida heat symbolize the emotional burdens she carries. The trip is not simply about travel but marks the beginning of a transition from the comfortable facade of family life to confronting difficult truths.
Ellie’s marriage with Jonah is fraying, a fact they decide to disclose to their family during the reunion. This announcement—an impending divorce—shocks those around them and exposes the fragile cracks beneath years of shared history.
The revelation triggers a complex emotional fallout. Ellie’s parents respond with a mix of denial and judgment, particularly her mother Bunny, who clings to religious convictions that reject the idea of divorce.
Her father Frank instinctively directs blame toward Jonah, highlighting generational and gender dynamics in how family crises are processed. Their daughter Maggie, caught between loyalty and confusion, withdraws emotionally, struggling to reconcile the idealized family image with the painful reality of her parents’ separation.
Ellie grapples with feelings of guilt and isolation, revisiting memories of sacrifices made and opportunities lost in the name of family duty. She reflects on how her identity has been shaped by others’ expectations and wonders what remains of her authentic self.
Meanwhile, Jonah and Ellie share moments of tentative vulnerability, hinting at lingering affection despite the absence of love that once held them together. Their relationship did not end in a dramatic collapse but faded quietly through years of unmet needs and emotional silence.
As the reunion progresses, the family remains in an uneasy standstill—caught in a liminal space where past roles no longer fit, and new ways of relating are uncertain. Meals are shared but conversations are stilted or avoided; traditions feel hollow, and the Florida setting, once comforting, grows foreign and disorienting.
Maggie’s growing independence and subtle rebellion complicate the familial fabric, while Ellie tentatively reconnects with parts of herself that had been shelved—reawakening old dreams and desires.
The emotional atmosphere is thick with unspoken pain and tentative admissions. Late-night talks between Ellie and Jonah under the stars reveal a quiet longing for connection, even as they acknowledge the impossibility of restoring what was lost.
Ellie’s reflections deepen as she contemplates the cyclical nature of life, the inevitability of change, and the difficult process of letting go—not only of marriage but also of the woman she once was.
In the final stages of the story, the family prepares to return home, physically leaving Florida but emotionally stepping into an unknown future. Ellie’s departure is marked by moments of reconciliation and a growing sense of peace.
She exchanges a gentle, respectful farewell with Jonah and experiences a softening in her relationship with Maggie. Though wounds remain, the possibility of healing begins to emerge.
Ellie embraces a bittersweet clarity, understanding that while some chapters close, new ones are waiting to be written.
The novel closes on a metaphorical “return flight,” symbolizing both an end and a new beginning. Ellie watches the clouds drift by, feeling a mixture of grief and hope, ready to reclaim her identity on her own terms.
The story avoids tidy resolutions, instead honoring the complex, often messy process of transformation that life demands when the familiar no longer fits—and some other time, some other way, must be found.
Characters
Ellie Grace Adams (later Baker)
Ellie is the emotional and psychological heart of the story. Her journey begins with an intense internal struggle as she confronts the dissolution of her marriage and the shifting identity that follows.
Initially depicted as a woman burdened by anxiety and a sense of purposelessness after her daughter Maggie leaves for college, Ellie wrestles with the quiet erosion of her roles as wife and mother. She is deeply reflective and self-aware, often caught in moments of nostalgia for a time when her life felt more certain and grounded.
Throughout the narrative, Ellie transitions from someone overwhelmed by loss and emotional isolation to a woman cautiously reclaiming her sense of self. She carries the weight of sacrifice, duty, and unfulfilled dreams but slowly begins to rediscover old interests and aspirations, symbolized by her return to journaling and reading.
Her emotional arc is marked by a complex mixture of grief, acceptance, and tentative hope, showcasing her resilience and evolving self-understanding.
Jonah Baker
Jonah is portrayed as Ellie’s husband, whose presence is initially shadowed by marital distance and the weight of years of emotional fatigue. His relationship with Ellie is characterized by a polite facade masking a quiet, gradual disconnection rather than explosive conflict or betrayal.
Jonah’s character reflects the theme of mutual drift and unmet needs in long-term relationships. Despite the divorce, he retains a degree of tenderness and vulnerability, especially visible during late-night conversations and their final moments together.
His reactions to the divorce announcement and family fallout reveal the difficulty of expressing emotions in a context shaped by generational expectations and masculine stoicism. Jonah’s respectful, calm demeanor contrasts with the emotional turbulence around him, suggesting his own internal pain and heartbreak beneath the surface.
In the end, his gesture of respect towards Ellie on the plane encapsulates a shared history of love that, while no longer sustaining a marriage, remains deeply human and significant.
Maggie Baker
Maggie, the daughter of Ellie and Jonah, serves as a key emotional barometer for the family’s shifting dynamics. Her transition from dependent child to independent college student symbolizes the changing family landscape and challenges Ellie’s sense of maternal identity.
Maggie’s reaction to her parents’ divorce is one of profound disappointment, confusion, and withdrawal. She struggles to reconcile the image of her parents’ seemingly stable and loving marriage with its sudden collapse, which shakes her foundational beliefs about love and family.
Maggie’s lifestyle changes, such as adopting vegetarianism, symbolize her broader detachment from family norms and hint at a quiet rebellion as she forms her own identity. Despite the emotional distance she places between herself and her parents, Maggie shows glimmers of vulnerability and a cautious willingness to engage, especially as the story progresses towards reconciliation and healing.
Her presence highlights the generational gap and the complexity of parent-child relationships amidst familial upheaval.
Bunny (Ellie’s Mother)
Bunny represents the older generation’s values and perspectives, particularly the influence of Catholic tradition and cultural expectations surrounding marriage and family. Her initial denial of Ellie and Jonah’s divorce reflects a deep resistance to change and an adherence to religious doctrine that complicates her ability to emotionally support Ellie’s decision.
Bunny’s role is one of both judgment and maternal concern, embodying the tension between unconditional love and disappointment. Over time, her softened reactions and moments of compassion suggest a gradual, if reluctant, acceptance of the new family reality.
Bunny’s character underscores the theme of intergenerational conflict and the challenge of reconciling personal truths with inherited beliefs.
Frank (Ellie’s Father)
Frank’s character adds another layer of generational and gender dynamics to the story. His instinctual blaming of Jonah for the marriage breakdown reveals traditional biases and expectations placed on men as protectors or sources of family stability.
Frank’s reactions embody frustration and confusion, illustrating how older family members process and sometimes externalize the pain of familial disruption. Despite this, Frank’s concern for his daughter remains evident, portraying a father caught between protective instincts and the difficulty of understanding modern relationship complexities.
Themes
The Emotional Geography of Midlife Identity Crisis Amid Familial and Marital Dissolution
One of the most profound themes threaded throughout the narrative is Ellie’s agonizing journey through a midlife identity crisis precipitated by the dissolution of her marriage and the shifting dynamics within her family.
The book intricately explores how Ellie grapples with the loss of her former roles—wife, mother, daughter—and the profound existential disorientation that follows. This crisis is not a straightforward loss but a layered emotional geography, marked by internal conflicts between societal expectations, personal desires, and the quiet erosion of a once-familiar self.
The Florida reunion becomes a crucible where Ellie confronts the fading significance of her maternal identity, especially as Maggie, her daughter, asserts independence and new values that diverge sharply from family tradition. This fracturing identity landscape reveals how aging and change can unsettle the very foundations of who one believes themselves to be, emphasizing the loneliness and isolation often masked behind everyday facades.
The Gradual Death of Intimacy
A rich, recurring theme is the subtle, often invisible decay of intimate relationships over time, portrayed not as dramatic rupture but as the slow withering of emotional connection.
Ellie and Jonah’s marriage is shown to have succumbed not to a single event or betrayal but to years of unmet emotional needs, habitual silence, and mutual withdrawal. Their interactions—polite yet distant—mirror the broader societal challenge of maintaining closeness amid life’s pressures and evolving personal identities.
The narrative dismantles romanticized notions of marriage by revealing the painstaking loneliness that can exist even in lifelong companionship. This theme also extends to the parental generation, where Ellie’s parents’ reactions reflect traditional, sometimes rigid, value systems that clash with contemporary realities, underscoring generational gaps in understanding emotional breakdown.
The portrayal of their decision to divorce as a mutual but painful acceptance rather than a battle or blame game adds a nuanced dimension to the experience of love’s decline.
Emotional Limbo and the Liminal Space of “Standby”
The metaphor of “standby” encapsulates the uncertain, suspended emotional state experienced by Ellie, Jonah, and Maggie in the aftermath of the divorce announcement.
This theme of liminality—being caught between past certainties and an unknown future—permeates the narrative and highlights the psychological paralysis that often accompanies profound life changes.
The characters are forced into close physical proximity within the Florida setting, yet remain emotionally distant, embodying the tension between enforced togetherness and internal fragmentation.
This liminal space is portrayed as both a place of grief and the quiet beginnings of self-rediscovery, as Ellie tentatively reconnects with parts of herself lost to years of sacrifice and conformity.
The narrative captures the complexity of this emotional “pause,” resisting neat resolutions and instead dwelling in the ambiguity and discomfort of transition, thereby reflecting the authentic messiness of personal transformation.
Interplay of Memory, Place, and Symbolism in the Process of Letting Go and Redefining Selfhood
Throughout the novel, physical settings and objects act as potent symbols that deepen the thematic exploration of change, memory, and the emotional labor of letting go.
Florida, initially a place of warmth and family tradition, becomes a backdrop of emotional estrangement and disorientation, reflecting Ellie’s internal state. The lost luggage metaphorically represents the mental and emotional burdens Ellie carries, while family heirlooms, old homes, and shared routines function as touchstones linking past identities to present realities.
The return flight serves as a powerful symbol of transition—both literal and figurative—as Ellie confronts what she must carry forward and what she must leave behind.
This interplay underscores the tension between the comfort of familiar attachments and the necessity of embracing change. Music and journaling emerge as tools for processing grief and cultivating resilience, illustrating how memory can be both a source of pain and a foundation for growth.