Summary

In Chapter 31, Cliff recounts proposing to Eden during the summer of ’58. They eloped without telling their parents, bringing only a few of the young people from the café circuit to their City Hall ceremony. This solution allowed Eden to keep working for Cliff’s Old Man without that arrangement being complicated. Eden moved into Cliff’s Village apartment and they enjoy honeymoon bliss. In Chapter 32, they fall into a domestic routine, and Eden encourages Cliff to write again. Rusty becomes a source of argument between the happy couple, and Eden—who is the breadwinner in their relationship—threatens Cliff with the prospect that if he did not stop blowing all their rent money on “that whiney sonofabitch” he’d have to get a day-job (207).

Chapter 33 turns back to Miles. Since we last left him he has successfully saved up enough money for his trip...