All the Bright Places

In the poem “Epilogue,” the poet Robert Lowell asks, “Yet why not say what happened?” Finch isn’t sure how to answer that question. He’s just wondering which of his feelings are real, and which “me” is actually him. He’s only ever liked one version of himself, and that Finch was awake as long as possible. Finch couldn’t stop the cardinal’s death, so he feels responsible for it. In a way, Finch’s entire family was responsible—their house was built where the cardinal’s tree once was.

Finch flashes again on the final line of Virginia Woolf’s suicide note, in which she tells her husband, “If anybody could have saved me it would have been you.” Cesare Pavese wrote “We do not remember days, we remember moments.” Finch remembers running to buy flowers. He remembers Violet’s smile, and how she looked at Finch like he was whole. Violet’s hand in his made it seem like someone belonged to him.