The Seven Year Slip

Apartment B4 of the Monroe building is both a setting and a symbol that reflects many of the novel’s major themes while being tied to Clementine’s character growth. The apartment number is a pun on the word “before,” symbolizing its ability to transfer its inhabitants into the past. Not only does it physically transport Clementine to the past, but the beloved apartment of her Aunt Analea is filled with memories—so much so that she refuses to move in for the first few months after Analea’s death. Analea believed the apartment had a mind of its own, bringing together people from the past and future when they both needed it. In this way, Apartment B4 often acts as a character within the novel, and its choices influence Clementine and Iwan’s relationship. In the final lines of the novel, Clementine states:

Nothing stayed—or so I had always thought. Nothing stayed and nothing lingered. But I was wrong. Because there was an apartment in the Monroe on the Upper East Side that was full of magic, and it taught me how to say goodbye. And it was no longer mine [...] Because the things that mattered most never really left.