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Kip Westaway
Stanzi is the narrator of the second chapter. She is Kip and Annabel’s daughter, and Charlotte’s twin sister. Stanzi does not enter the story until she is in her early 20s, when Charlotte finds out she is pregnant. Although Stanzi is already cynical and admittedly unhappy by this point, in spite of their pleasant childhood, she has plans to continue her counseling career until she can earn her PhD and become a psychoanalyst. However, after 10 years, Stanzi is still in the same counseling role and hates her job and her clients. She is overweight and filled with self-contempt, imagining that her parents love Charlotte more than her, that Charlotte is more beautiful and successful despite never having a real career of her own. After Stanzi violates the counselor-client relationship by visiting one of her clients, Violet, at her house and accusing her of stealing Kip’s special shilling, Stanzi realizes that she needs to quit her job and move on. The last time that Stanzi appears in the story, five years later, she has quit her counseling job, lost weight, and become a personal trainer. She now and co-parents Charlotte’s kids, Alec and Libby. When Stanzi speaks with Alec and her parents, she is less cynical and far more positive and appreciative of her family, demonstrating that personal growth and even happiness are achievable for even the sourest individual.
Stanzi Westaway Quotes in Nine Days
The Nine Days quotes below are all either spoken by Stanzi Westaway or refer to Stanzi Westaway. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2: Stanzi Quotes
“Sometimes, […] when I see a tower in the distance, I half expect to see a plane fly into it.”
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In the opening passage of Stanzi’s narrative, her client, Violet, confesses to dwelling on the recent terror attacks, and Stanzi notes that many of her clients are reporting increased anxiety and trouble sleeping. Violet’s statement is a clear reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., which establishes that the narrative takes place sometime in the subsequent weeks after September 11, 2001. Once again, although Australia is far away from any attacks, and although the potential looming war will likely have no direct impact on Australians, the shadow of war and news of such devastation have a notable impact Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas.
I have struggled through an entire packet of cream biscuits I didn’t like when I could have had cake. Sacrifice, without any reason or benefit. Ife is too short for cream biscuits. I could be trapped in a collapsing skyscraper tomorrow and it would have all been a tragic waste of calories.
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Stanzi tries to stop herself from overeating by buying cream biscuits she doesn’t enjoy, but eats all of them anyway, prompting the realization that sacrificing her enjoyment was not worth it. Stanzi’s idea that sacrificing today for potential—but not guaranteed—benefit sometime in the future is not worth it (since the future itself is uncertain) precedes her own character development later in the novel. In Stanzi’s narrative, though she is a counselor with a professional career ahead of her, she is profoundly unhappy and filled with cynicism and self-contempt, but pursuing her career with the limply-held belief that it might pay Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in.
They cannot keep the anger in, the women: they drink too much, they shoplift, they sleep with their doubles partners, they scream at their children, the pay someone to take a knife to their eyes or breast or stomach. The turn the anger inward and develop a depression so deep they cannot get out of bed.
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Stanzi recognizes that most of her clients, who are primarily middle-class white women, possess an inexplicable, undirected rage toward the world and their lives for not turning out how they expected. Although they did what they believed they were supposed to do, they are not pretty, famous, desired, or wealthy enough, causing them to act out or develop psychological disorders. Stanzi’s condemnation of her patients is also a condemnation of herself, since she struggles with her own compulsive overeating that causes her to loath herself. Such undirected rage is also very evident in Jean, which stems from the fact that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus cor
Maybe lightning isn’t the best analogy for love. Maybe love is more like a coin: moving between people all around us, all the time, linking people within families and on the other side of the world, across oceans.
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While Stanzi visits with her mother, Annabel, she thinks about how unfair it is to come from such loving parents with their happy marriage, since “lightning” cannot strike twice in the same family and it’s unlikely that she will ever find such love—that is, until she considers that love may be softer and quieter, like a shilling. This passage establishes the symbolism of Kip’s shilling as a representation of love’s connecting power and the way it forms bridges between individuals and generations, sometimes even between strangers. In the same way that the shilling passes from one individual to the next, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit
Chapter 4: Charlotte Quotes
It’d be different if Stanzi was pregnant. Stanzi’s going places. She has a degree. That dingy little office next to the dentist, that’s temporary. She’s only working as a counselor until she saves up enough to do her PhD. She’s going to be a psychoanalyst, the philosophical, Freudian type, unpicking people’s fears from the inside. She has a proper career plan.
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While Charlotte frets about her unexpected pregnancy and the hard future ahead of her if she decides to keep the baby, she considers how much more successful Stanzi’s life is than hers, and how much easier things could be if she was like her sister. Charlotte’s glowing opinion of Stanzi and her future potential are particularly significant after hearing what Stanzi thinks of herself in her narrative in Chapter 2. Although Stanzi still had not started her PhD at that point, she is nevertheless a professional counselor with a career ahead of her, yet she is filled with self-loathing and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa.
Chapter 8: Alec Quotes
From what [Kip] says, it seems like all kinds of stupid things had to be kept secret back then. When he says that his sister didn’t die from the flu, Stanzi just nods. Charlotte gets on her high horse about ridiculous sexist taboos and lies and nothing to be ashamed of. Grandma [Annabel] smiles. You can’t imagine what it was like back then, she says. So much pain, all covered over.
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After Alec finds a photo of Connie kissing Jack and shows it to his grandfather, Kip, Kip explains to the family that Connie did not die from the flu like he’d told them, but from an abortion. Alec and Charlotte’s reaction to this news provides the most overt critique in the story against old notions of abortion, and gendered stigmas, clearly arguing that the “ridiculous sexist taboos” of those days were absurd, and that society has a much less regressive attitude toward women in the modern age. Annabel’s response provides the appropriate counter to such anger: the world was simply Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusa
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Stanzi Westaway Character Timeline in Nine Days
The timeline below shows where the character Stanzi Westaway appears in Nine Days. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: Stanzi
Stanzi sits in her office, in a counseling session with a young rich woman with “daddy...
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Stanzi’s mind wanders again to the Maldives, but she forces herself to focus on her session....
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...she looks at a tower, she “half expect[s] to see a plane fly into it.” Stanzi understands the feeling and reflects on how tense everyone has been in the weeks since...
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As Violet traipses around the room, she notices a shilling sitting on Stanzi’s otherwise bare desk. Stanzi remarks that it’s her father’s prized possession, it reminds him of...
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Stanzi writes up her notes and feels hungry as she always does after speaking with Violet....
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...narcissistic statement with “my counselor says” so that their problems and self-centeredness sound legitimate. As Stanzi packs her things to leave, she realizes the shilling is missing.
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Stanzi calls Charlotte from her car to ask what year the shilling was. Charlotte is too...
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Charlotte realizes that Stanzi intends to just buy another coin, and though Stanzi can’t see what’s wrong with it,...
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Stanzi goes to the address in Violet’s file to ask for the shilling. If she doesn’t...
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Stanzi tells the man her name—revealing that Stanzi is short for Constance—which he seems to recognize,...
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Stanzi sits with her Mum, Annabel, late in the night in their kitchen, heartbroken. She returned...
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Kip emerges from his bedroom in his pajamas, greets Stanzi warmly, and hugs and kisses her. He kisses everyone, no matter how well or little...
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Annabel offers to go sort it out, since Stanzi is still her child even if she’s 35, but Stanzi waves her off the idea....
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Chapter 4: Charlotte
...them kinder in their daily work, though the one time she admitted this hope to Stanzi, Stanzi plainly doubted it. After yoga, her body feels more aligned, but the foreign weight...
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...pulls out an amethyst pendant that her mother, Annabel, gave her for her 18th birthday. Stanzi opted to receive cash instead. Charlottes presses the pendant to her heart, then holds it...
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After Charlotte realizes she’s pregnant, she goes to Stanzi for support, though so far her sister is mostly cynical and less confident in the...
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Stanzi makes a quick run to the pharmacy for a pregnancy test while Charlotte sits on...
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Stanzi returns shortly with the pregnancy test and Charlotte takes it in the bathroom to pee...
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...with Uncle Frank, who lives in the same house in which they grew up. Outside, Stanzi and Charlotte sit in Stanzi’s car while Charlotte decides if she will go in. Charlotte...
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Stanzi continues to ramble until Charlotte tells her to “shut up.” Charlotte thinks about the money...
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Chapter 8: Alec
...friends earlier that evening and is “ruining [his] life,” so he walked out. At least Stanzi understands that he’s 17 and basically an adult. Stanzi gives him space. Alec imagines himself...
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...commitment, demonstrated by her two children and no boyfriend. Charlotte’s had enough and yells for Stanzi to come talk to him instead.
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Stanzi, who is now a personal trainer, bounds up the stairs. Alec thinks she must rush...
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...house, and then just himself after Kip moved out, and then he gave it to Stanzi and Charlotte and moved himself into the nursing home after he retired from the law...
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...he and Annabel only had the one amethyst pendant to give and two daughters—even though Stanzi took cash instead. He gives Stanzi the shilling, now threaded on a silver chain, making...
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...Libby’s father throughout their childhood, performing all the fatherly duties. After Kip’s kissed everyone goodbye, Stanzi drives them home and then goes out for the night.
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