Dramatic irony and the attacks
The novel uses the well-known historical events of 9/11/2001 as dramatic irony. She recreates the state of pre-9/11 New York City showing that the people of the city were just going about life normally without any pre-conception of any attacks. The attacks were life-shattering to the city and the nation at large. The novel is a portrait of various characters and their lives together in community, where the dramatic tension is released by the terrorist attacks, which changes all the plot lines.
Seeley and Marina
Danielle is dating two men at once when the novel meets her. She is deciding between suitors, but lately, she has been leaning toward Seeley, the journal editor. When she connects Seeley with an author that he might like to read, her friend Marina, she doesn't know that she is giving him away to fall in love with her. Marina and Seeley hit it off, leaving Danielle with the suitor she preferred less. She is responsible for her own frustrating situation because of irony.
Danielle's dual rejection
To make matters worse, her consolation relationship with Murray Thwaite starts to go south. Bootie unearths concerning details about Thwaite's business practices, and with the tension between them looming, Danielle has a hard time keeping her head up. Then, when 9/11 happens, Bootie turns up missing and Thwaite goes back to his wife, leaving his affair with Danielle behind. Danielle ironically loses both her relationships with Seeley and Thwaite.
Bootie's discovery
Bootie is a character whose primary character trait is that he explains secrets, bringing information from the chaotic unknown of dramatic irony into the known realm of situational irony. He exposes Thwaite's business practices, showing an aspect of his character that was only known by Danielle, who knows he is not the most integral person in the world—after all he is cheating on his wife to be with Danielle. Bootie is lost in the terrorist attacks, and when he is discovered later, he doesn't remember being Bootie at all. His new name is "New." He shows what dramatic irony conceals, that life in New York was changed so thoroughly that people couldn't remember what it felt like to not know about the attacks.
Marina's ironic book deal
In the background of the novel, we see a struggling author whose novel is just not coming together. She feels a great deal of emotional confusion, and her friends want to be supportive, but they can see that the book just isn't working. She dates an editor who gets it published because he loves her, and they get married, but Marina's whole journey of book-publishing is littered with irony. She succeeds in getting a book deal just to fail at finishing the novel, and the money from the publishers has run out. She wonders if the book will even out-earn her advance.
