How did The Faculty Lounge end? | Jennifer Mathieu (plot summary and ending explained)
Absolutely charming! This is an easy read if you want to lose yourself in a collection of stories that weave together around a school community and the people who work there. Jennifer Mathieu’s The Faculty Lounge is poignant and heartfelt with a nice dash of humor throughout. I found myself caring about the characters even though each only had one chapter to tell their story.
What is the central core of the novel?
The book centers around Baldwin High School in Texas and the faculty and staff who work there. The catalyst that brings this particular collection of stories together comes when a beloved, retired teacher comes back to substitute teach and passes away taking a nap on the ratty couch in the faculty lounge (the author comically notes that the timing during the beginning of the free period was quite kind, giving the office an entire hour to find a substitute for his next class).
Mr Lehrer’s passing is both central to and a side plot after the first chapter. The body can’t be picked up for some time, and so it remains in the faculty lounge for hours covered with a sheet. The teachers discuss the wording of the email from the principal and how it could have been worded to be more accurate (these small moments made me laugh because it is such a teacher thing). The rest of the book weaves through stories of different members of the Baldwin High School faculty.
Mr. Lehrer’s will specified that he wanted his ashes to be spread in the front courtyard of the school because teaching at Baldwin brought him so much joy (which is so sweet I could honestly cry). The principal isn’t sure what to do, but since there isn’t a policy forbidding it, he goes ahead and has a brief memorial with the teachers and begins to spread the ashes. Unfortunately, the head of the PTO Jessica Patterson comes upon this and a gust of Texas wind scattered the ashes right onto her. Yikes! This event incites further fallout, though as a personal note I find it outrageous that anyone wouldn’t honor this? Instant dislike for Jessica Patterson, who does not take this lightly (don’t worry, though; things always come back around).
What were the other stories in the book?
The stories were linked by the incident with Mr. Lehrer in the faculty lounge, but they were also about the person and part of their journey as a person who was also a teacher. There’s Mrs. Fletcher (Amanda) who is one of the few teachers present who worked with Mr. Lehrer at the school. She remembers his kindness when she was a new teacher, as well as an uncomfortable kiss in a parking lot after a staff event that he was unendingly embarrassed about after. She reflects on the change during her career with the #metoo movement, but doesn’t identify the incident with Mr. Lehrer as being anything like what is being talked about. If anything, it was a catalyst that eventually led her to break up with her long-term boyfriend. In a nice circle back, her chapter ends with her offering advice to another new teacher who is struggling, just as Mr. Lehrer did for her many years before.
Ms. Sanderson was the teacher who discovered Mr. Lehrer’s body. Two weeks after the incident with his ashes, the school is called into a lockdown and she finds herself in the book room with Mr. Rayfield. In one of the more uplifting chapters, the two young teachers connect in those hours locked down (including a PG make out!). I also loved their conversation (as the two youngest teachers) about growing up going through drills for active shooters regularly. This is a unique experience for younger teachers; older teachers didn’t have that worry at the forefront of their education experience.
One humorous chapter is written almost exclusively in emails between English teacher Andrew Williams and a parent who objects to her child reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X because she recently learned about Critical Race Theory and thinks the book is racist against white people (yikes!). The emails themselves are comical, but I was shook when Mr. Williams accidentally replied to one of them when he meant to forward it to his friend and colleague, Lydia Brennan. I think we can all relate to forwarding a particularly outrageous email or text to a friend, so the horror that he accidentally forwarded it to the mother who wrote it with his commentary felt too real for comfort! Lydia Brennan’s story revolves humorously about a student housesitting for her and finding her vibrator. Ms. Brennan is feeling down when another relationship ends in infidelity, but she receives a note from her student saying how special she is as a teacher. This actually made me tear up–a small act of kindness with big impact.
Assistant Principal Denise Baker has the unfortunate task of helping clear up the situation with Mr. Williams. Her words to him show kindness, but Ms. Baker is in a dark place. We learn about the passing of her wife and her depression in the wake of that. She is drinking too much, including at work. And a teacher on the receiving end of an inappropriate alcohol-infused evaluation reacts not with anger, but with compassion. He is sober as well, and offers to support her sobriety journey whenever she is ready. This story was one of the more emotional ones, but I also felt the kindness in one colleague noticing the human suffering another was going through, and offering support.
Principal Mark Kendricks had a running story throughout, beginning with the discovery of Mr. Lehrer’s body and the spreading of his ashes into the courtyard (and onto the PTO president). I loved his character—a flawed man, but one who always tried to do what is right and often with a laugh of good humor. Mr. Kendricks’ story revolves around his attraction and connection to an assistant principal, Kitty Garcia. He has an opportunity to engage in an affair with her, but he doesn’t do it. Mr. Kendricks’ memories of meeting his wife Lisa and falling in love were sweet. Later, we learn that Mr. Kendricks has been removed as principal because of the incident with the ashes. The school community is devastated (don’t worry, this isn’t the end of Principal Kendricks’ story!).
School custodian Luz Guevara is an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador. Luz shares fond memories of Mr. Kendricks and Mr. Lehrer being kind to her, which was touching but sad. Luz was a math teacher back in El Salvador at an all-girls school, but no one besides Mr. Lehrer knew this. They see her as a custodian and someone who is largely invisible to them. Luz’s invisibility leads her to observe an inappropriate interaction between a teacher and a student, but her undocumented status makes it difficult to report. Mr. Lehrer reports it for her, keeping her name out of it. Later, Luz will be the person who sees Mr. Kendricks get escorted out of the school—an event that devastates the school faculty. Luz’s chapter was perhaps the most heartbreaking, but it also showed the moments of kindness that may seem insignificant, but can mean the world to someone else. Isn’t this a lesson we could all follow more often?
Nurse Honeycutt ends up playing a major role in the story. A student comes to her in tears after finding out she is pregnant. She is scared to tell her father, and she’s worried it’ll ruin her future. She’s about to graduate. Nurse Honeycutt reflects on a pregnancy she had at the age of fifteen, and her lack of options. She was sent away to hide the pregnancy and birth, her child was given away, and she came home to find her boyfriend and his family had moved away. Now, Nurse Honeycutt knows that the supreme court decision took away the right for many women to have options. Nurse Honeycutt has prepared for this, and she leaves pills with instructions on how to use them in the student’s locker in case she wants to take that route. She doesn’t know what happened until the student’s mother comes to see her. She’s grateful to Nurse Honeycutt for helping her daughter when she had nowhere to turn. In a twist, we learn that the student is the daughter of Jessica Patterson, the head of the PTO who ultimately got Mr. Kendricks fired. Later when we find out that Jessica Patterson dropped the case and asked Mr. Kendricks to be reinstated, a small smile on Nurse Honeycutt’s face tells us everything we need to know. Hers was perhaps my favorite storyline!
What did I think of the ending?
As the book wraps up, Mr. Kendricks is reinstated, math teacher Lovie Jackson is retiring (this was a lovely mirror to Mr. Lehrer’s retirement story), and Mr. Lehrer’s son sends a heartfelt letter to the school about how important it was to his dad and how grateful he is that they honored his dad’s wishes (take that, Jessica Patterson and central office!). The final scene occurs in 1962, on Mr. Lehrer’s first day teaching at Baldwin High School. A more senior teacher reassures him, “No one is ever really ready for the first day.” Throughout, we have seen this same kindness and mentorship from more senior teachers passed on to younger teachers, beginning with Mr. Lehrer helping Ms. Fletcher in her first week. The cycle of the faculty and staff going on to offer that support to someone else wove a thread of kindness through the book.
The story centers around a school and the events surrounding Mr. Lehrer’s death in the faculty lounge, but I think that the real core of the book centers around the moments of kindness one person shows another, and how that small act can have profound effect. Mathieu didn’t shy away from some polarizing issues, but ones that teachers and students face every day. What is it like to be the lone black teacher in an affluent white school? Where is the line between appropriate relationships with colleagues? How can we support students to have broad learning and options available to them when their families or even local government may not? These are not light topics, but the book handles them in a way that is subtle but impactful. Many of the stories involve someone’s past, and often not a story from their career. But every experience shared ties into the type of educator that person becomes.
A lovely and thought-provoking book.
