51 pages • 1 hour read
The Book of Two Ways
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Chapters 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “Land/Egypt”
Dawn tries to convince Wyatt to hire her for the dig, but he is reluctant, still surprised by her appearance, and wondering why she is there. He finally agrees to get her a work permit, and introduces her to the other workers. During his tour of the dig, she sees that the dig’s methods have become more technology-based in the past 15 years. Wyatt tells her that he has found the tomb of Djehutynakht, son of Teti, an exciting discovery that no one outside of his team knows about. He will take her there after she gets permission to work the site.
While they travel to Minya to get her work permit, they make awkward small talk. She tells him about her work as a death doula, and he updates her on what has happened in their field since she left. She reveals that she has a daughter and is married. Wyatt reflects that her current occupation as a death doula was not so different from her studies in Egyptology.
In Minya, while they wait for the permit office to open, Wyatt admits that the work they did together was fundamental to his discovery of the tomb. He had finally found it beneath other tombs, and believes that Djehutynakht was responsible for the necropolis. Dawn is surprised that Wyatt has not gotten into the tomb yet. He blames funding issues, and because he is teaching at Yale, he only works the dig during the summer months.
Mostafa Awad, the inspector responsible for her work permit, recognizes her from the past and allows her to work the dig. On the way back to the Dig House, Dawn and Wyatt stop at a restaurant, and he asks her why she really is there. Dawn wants to tell him that she thinks she made a mistake in leaving, but instead tells him that her husband does not know she is there.
That night, back at the Dig House, Dawn leaves her room to get Wyatt’s dissertation so that she can finish reading it. She runs into Alberto, one of Wyatt’s students, but he is cool to her. When Wyatt comes to her room to tell her that the workday will begin at 4:30 the next morning, she thanks him for his citation of her article in his dissertation.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Water/Boston”
Dawn goes to Harvard to watch Brian lecture on parallel universes. She does not realize until it is over that he has seen her come in. She approaches him after the students leave, but Gita, the doctoral student of whom Dawn is suspicious, interrupts them.
When Dawn and Brian first met at his house one night, he told her the story of his grandmother, who had survived multiple concentration camps in Poland during World War II. Years later, a woman who had been in the camps with her had found her in Boston. For the first time since she left Egypt, Dawn felt comfortable and relaxed. After they slept together for the first time that night, she wandered his house while he slept, learning about his family and thinking about him.
After Brian’s class and Gita’s interruption, Dawn leaves the classroom upset. He catches up with Dawn outside, again claiming that there is nothing going on between him and his student. Dawn knows that may be true, but also knows that Gita wants more. Dawn feels that Brian is in some way complicit.
Dawn had discovered that her mother was in massive debt after her death. Brian was there for her throughout the ordeal as she settled into her new life of taking care of Kieran and working at the hospice. One day, in conversation with the hospice director, she asked about Brian’s grandmother, and was told that she had died two weeks before Dawn’s mother. She knew then that Brian had been coming to the hospice just to support her.
When Dawn returns to Win’s house, she, Win, and Felix begin the official process of making her Win’s death doula. They cover technical information, such as medical power of attorney, as well as discuss Win’s options for funerals and burials. Win discovers Dawn’s passion for Egyptology, and they discuss her views on art.
Dawn had trouble sleeping after her mother died. She believed it to be grief until she went to the doctor, who told her she was pregnant. She was nervous telling Brian, but he was thrilled. Although Dawn felt like she had betrayed Wyatt, her life with him seemed distant, and so when Brian asked her to move in with him, she agreed. Dawn officially withdrew from the Egyptology program at Yale, but never wrote to Wyatt. Meret was born two weeks early, but healthy.
When Dawn returns home from visiting Win, she asks Meret to take a walk. Meret gets angry, seeing it as a comment on her weight. That night, Dawn sleeps in her office instead of in bed with Brian. She sometimes does this because of her duties as a death doula, but that night it reflects the state of her marriage. She considers that the problems between her and Brian may not be about Gita.
The next morning, Meret asks Dawn to go for a walk, and apologizes for her reaction the previous day. She asks if Dawn and Brian are going to get a divorce, and Dawn realizes that Meret knows what is happening. She also knows that Dawn had left, but Dawn assures her that everything will be fine. When they return home, Meret goes upstairs to take a shower, and Dawn, preoccupied, cuts her thumb while slicing strawberries. Brian bandages the wound, and they share a moment. When Meret comes downstairs and finds them, they all laugh and reconnect momentarily.
Dawn remembers her first experience with death. Her dog, Dudley, was put to sleep when she was a child. Her mother allowed her to hold Dudley as the sedative was administered, and then to stay with the dog until she was ready to leave.
Dawn visits Win, who shows her a piece of Egyptian art that she has collected. It is from the Book of the Dead, or the Book of Going Forth by Day, and Win is surprised that Dawn knows so much about it. Dawn explains some of the ancient Egyptians’ views on death to Win, who is shocked that she can read hieroglyphics. When she comments that Dawn should be a teacher, she reveals her past as an Egyptologist.
Chapters 3-4 Analysis
In Chapter 3, Wyatt reveals that his discovery of the tomb was spurred by his work with Dawn, which makes the discovery seem as much hers as his. Supporting this idea further is the fact that he has been using her illustrations throughout his search. When she begins her work transcribing the hieroglyphics at the site, the narrative shows that Dawn has real skills as an illustrator and translator. Although she is nervous about how technology has changed since she was a student, Wyatt comments that she is an amazing illustrator.
The new technology supports Dawn’s idea that the placement of the illustrations is just as important as the content, that it has meaning. This is the aspect of the tombs she has always been the most fascinated by, and the theory that she specialized in when she was a student. As Dawn puts it: “The way we used to do it, you lost half the information—why the inscriptions were put in that particular place, instead of somewhere else” (91). With the new technology, they are able to recreate the interior of the chamber, instead of transcribing, and keep the location information intact. It makes what would have been her field, had she stayed, much easier and the work more effective; now that she understands the possibilities, she is excited.
Dawn’s return and Wyatt’s tomb discovery coincide, which seems to reinforce the rightness of Dawn’s life with him. Picoult also uses this opportunity to offer information about Egypt, how archaeological digs work, and about ancient Egyptian history. As a first-person narrator, Dawn is sharing this information with the reader, and her enthusiasm and passion for the topic are clear. As the Egypt chapters flash between the present and the past, Picoult develops Dawn and Wyatt’s relationship further, as well as Dawn’s character.
In Chapter 4, Dawn and Meret work to get closer, but it is difficult for them both. While on their walk, Dawn realizes that Meret understands more than she had given her credit for, and deserves the truth. This is the first step toward a new understanding of parenting for Dawn. She has struggled with her relationship with Meret, but with this small realization, she begins to build her idea of Evolving Parenthood. Picoult also drops a small clue about Meret’s real biological father in this chapter; Dawn says that Meret was born two weeks early, which opens up the possibility that Wyatt is the father.
Dawn’s relationships with both Brian and Meret are strained, although they do have moments of connection, as when Meret offers to go for a walk with Dawn, when Brian bandages her thumb, and just after that, when the three of them reconnect as a family. These moments emphasize how Dawn’s life is not bereft of love, affection, or respect. Picoult portrays a real, loving relationship between Dawn and Brian, juxtaposing it with their difficulties.
Dawn’s relationship with Win also continues to develop; Dawn has shown Win her passion and previous life. When Dawn reveals the depth of her knowledge about ancient Egypt, Win remarks: “You are wasted as a death doula” (148). Dawn tells her: “I used to be an Egyptologist, in another life,” and when Win replies, “Do you believe in other lives?” Dawn says, “I want to” (150). Here, Picoult once more introduces the idea of alternate lives, or parallel universes. She does so as well through Brian’s lecture, one of the few times throughout the text that he expounds on the topic of parallel universes. Picoult uses these opportunities to again reinforce the idea of the sliding door narrative.
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