You, Again

Parts 5-7 return to the structure of Parts 1-3, with short parts with only one to two chapters apiece. This narrative pacing lets Goldbeck explore longer temporal gaps without dedicating pages to the time in which Ari and Josh are apart. This lets the narrative’s focus shift to Ari’s and Josh’s professional development without moving away from the genre constraints of the romance; though Ari and Josh need time apart to develop as individuals, this structure intentionally does not focus on every moment of this separation.

Josh’s return to a commercial kitchen and Ari’s work at WinProv explore The Cost and Benefit of Following Professional Dreams in contrasting ways. In Chapters 23 and 25, Ari wonders about the ethics of earning her living doing improv for companies that exploit their workers in various manners. While Brad, her boss, insists that Ari’s reluctance to do comedy for public figures like the DeVos family (public figures known for their extreme wealth and far-right conservatism) is exclusionary, the novel dismisses this view. Instead, it frames Brad’s claim that Ari is being prejudiced by not wanting to perform for unethical executives as connected to Cass’s excuses for pushing Ari to have the relationship that Cass wanted—it is an excuse to make Brad’s viewpoint seem unobjectionable.

While Ari is not compelled by this logic, she still needs to earn a steady paycheck, something that appeals to her less out of a desire for financial security and more out of a longing for personal “worth” that is culturally visible. Earning money is something that she feels will gain her social legitimacy, something that she feels considerably anxious about lacking. Ultimately, however, she decides that sacrificing her ethics is not worth this money, nor the cultural cache that comes with it. She is, moreover, motivated to return to New York and her previous gig work because of the fracturing of her relationship with Radhya. This connects back to the novel’s emphasis on The Rarity and Value of Friendship Over Romance. While Ari still struggles with her self-worth and has financial concerns after returning to New York, she sees maintaining her best friendship with Radhya as worth her decision to move back.

For Josh, working for Radhya is a positive shift in his professional trajectory, one that further develops the cost and benefit of following professional dreams. Despite this, he still sees not being in charge of a kitchen as a step backward in his career—a viewpoint that will change as the novel continues. However, his ability to overlook his initial hangups over seniority to work with Radhya on the pop-up shows that Josh’s professional trajectory has become about his desires rather than a need to prove himself—to his father, to the public who expects him to be like his father, or to himself. This leads to Josh reconciling his “chef” identity as something that is not entirely synonymous with his privilege and legacy as the son of a famous cook—but not necessarily entirely separate from that history, either. Instead, Josh can do the part of cooking that he loves (adding interesting flavor profiles to foods, such as with the chai-infused black-and-white cookies that Briar eats in Chapter 26) without doing the part that he dislikes (feeling compelled to make a name for himself entirely separate from Brodsky’s).

Josh’s emotional clarity in Part 7 shows that this professional understanding—something he gained by stopping avoiding his therapy sessions and discussing his problems openly—was a necessary step in his character development. Professional dreams, the narrative thus emphasizes, are a part of personal development insofar as they are a part of identity. Understanding one’s identity, in turn, emerges as an important precursor to healthy emotional intimacy in You, Again. When Josh understands himself, he can articulate his needs to Ari. In Chapter 26, therefore, he explains that he cannot be friends since he still loves her; he accepts that this does not necessarily mean that they will get to be together (a contrast to his position in Part 4, in which he was determined to make their relationship work, no matter the effort required). As Josh articulates his feelings, The Significance of Timing in Relationships continues to impact Ari and Josh’s dynamic; though Josh has this clarity, Ari is not yet as comfortable with her wants, which means that their romance still must wait for the right time.