Summary

In Chapter 5, Faye waited in a long line at a party for food and drink. Her meals, like other attendees of the festival, were covered by the festival’s organizers, but they relied on an inefficient coupon system, which made service slow. While in line, Faye met an older woman who criticized not only the literary festival they were both attending, but literary festivals more generally. The woman suggested that many writers who were gifted public speakers didn’t write very good books, and that many great writers were lousy at presenting their work in public. Faye offered no opinion on this take.

The woman, named Gerta, then told Faye about her backstory, how she had grown up in a household of means and was a wealthy heiress. She shared her feeling on generational differences, on the lives of her grown children, compared...