The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

After an interminable wait between Thursday and Saturday, Addie readies herself for her second date with Henry. At the bookstore, Henry introduces her to Bea, who says there is something timeless about Addie’s face. Henry takes Addie to a “speakeasy,” hidden behind a laundromat in Greenpoint, where they play pinball.

After pinball, Addie brings Henry to the Nitehawk, one of her favorite movie theaters in New York, to watch the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock classic North by Northwest. In the middle of the movie, after Henry learns that Addie has already seen it, he grows nervous and says he needs some air. Addie follows him outside and asks him what’s wrong. He responds, “Do you ever feel like you’re running out of time?” (176). Addie, of course, does not.

Back in 1724, Addie and Remy climb to the top of Notre Dame and enjoy a picnic. She insists on walking him home, and once there, they have sex. It is Addie’s first time having sex with someone who isn’t a paying customer, and the experience is far more pleasurable. Later in the night, however, she is devastated when Remy, having fallen asleep and forgotten who she is, assumes she is a sex worker and hands her three gold coins. On her way out, she steals a book by Voltaire, The Henriade, as a token of the brief affair.

After walking out of North by Northwest, Addie leads Henry to a secret nightclub in an abandoned subway tunnel. They dance for a long time until Henry, in a state of laughing euphoria, pulls Addie out into the street. It starts to rain, and Henry kisses her.

At Henry’s apartment, he and Addie have sex. Although they are not as physically compatible as Addie was with some of her other paramours, the sex is perfect because he knows her name and will remember her.

After leaving Remy’s home, Addie tearfully stalks the streets of Paris. This is when Luc makes his first appearance in years. Although she cannot hide the fact that she missed him, Addie defiantly proclaims that she has not withered without his attention. When Luc asks if she will yield this time, Addie, with her fingers on Remy’s coins, almost says yes. But instead, she snarls, “No,” delighting in the flash of anger she senses in Luc’s eyes.

The morning after her night with Henry, Addie wakes to the scent of breakfast. She can still hardly believe it when Henry greets her with a friendly “Good morning” rather than a vacant stare. Henry finds her wooden ring on the floor, and Addie frantically orders him not to touch it. When she takes the ring into her hand, it almost slips onto her finger, causing her to drop it in a panic.

After breakfast, Henry must go to work. They agree to meet again at a food truck rally in Prospect Park. When Henry leaves, Addie lingers in the apartment. In a drawer, she finds a bloodied handkerchief with an engagement ring inside.

As Addie waits for Henry to buy falafel at the food truck rally, she sees the vendor, a middle-aged woman, talk to Henry for a long time as she holds back tears. When Addie asks Henry about the encounter, he says he reminded her of her son.

After they eat, Henry realizes he is late to a dinner party at Bea’s. He invites Addie, and despite the complications she knows will come with meeting his friends, she accepts. On the way there, Addie learns more about his friends. Robbie was the first man Henry fell for, and even though Robbie dumped him long ago and they are now just friends, there is still tension between them. Bea is a lesbian who is reeling from a failed relationship with one of her graduate professors at Columbia. Finally, Addie learns about Tabitha, Henry’s ex-girlfriend who rejected his marriage proposal a few months ago.

It is July 29, 1751, the 37th year of the curse. Each day, Addie arranges a supposedly chance encounter with the famed salon holder Madame Geoffrin. With each meeting, Addie learns more about how to ingratiate herself with the woman until one day Madame Geoffrin invites her to her salon, where the Enlightenment pioneer Denis Diderot will be in attendance. There, Addie is “amazed to find a place where a woman was allowed to speak, or at least to listen” (208). She even sees an aged Remy Laurent sitting between Voltaire and the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Luc enters the salon, making his first appearance in six years. He tells Geoffrin that Addie is a con artist and therefore must be ejected. Addie runs out of the salon with Luc close on her heels. Outside, she feigns indifference, explaining that she could go back in right now because they won’t remember her. Luc retorts, “I think you’ll find my word won’t fade as fast as yours. They will not remember you, of course. But ideas are so much wilder than memories, so much faster to take root” (210).

At the dinner party in 2014, Bea does not remember meeting Addie, and Henry assumes she innocently forgot. Meanwhile, Addie senses intense jealousy from Robbie.

The next morning, Henry and Addie walk to the corner store. Robbie enters and does not remember Addie, as expected. Henry assumes Robbie is being facetious and cruel. He is about to hit Robbie when Addie steps in and pulls Henry out to the street. She tells him it isn’t Robbie’s fault he doesn’t remember her. When Henry presses her to explain, Addie takes a deep breath and begins her story: “My name is Addie LaRue. I was born in Villon in the year 1691...” (216).

On July 29, 1764, Addie returns to Villon for the first time since the curse began. Her parents’ cottage still stands, but her father’s workshop is abandoned and on the verge of collapse. She knocks on the door, and her elderly mother answers. Her mother asks what Addie wants, but Addie can only say, “I’m sorry,” as she turns away.

When Addie finishes telling Henry about her life in Villon, the stranger in the woods, and the deal she made, he laughs and repeat the words, “You made a deal” (220). Henry says he believes her. When asked why, he answers, “Because I made one, too” (221).