It is much harder to live in a situation that you previously have only imagined.

Mimi is a writer. She imagines worlds and creates actions and endings. Doing so in one’s mind is one thing. Actually living the situation is different. Xander tells Alice that Mimi does not hate her. She hates the fact that her life has turned out differently from what she had imagined. As readers get to know Mimi better, the truth behind Xander's statement becomes apparent.

Mimi tells Alice, "I always thought my mother was a fool. Then I had Frank" (187). Mimi had always imagined that she would be a better mother than her mother had been. She thought that she knew her brother, Julian, better than her mother did and she thought that she was helping him when she did his homework for him and that everything would work out. It...