Summary

Careful: Lloyd has moved out of the house he shares with his wife into an apartment where he can take stock of his life, and try to cut down on his drinking. He starts drinking only champagne, but he is still drinking three or four bottles of champagne a day: it is clear he is not making much headway in cutting back. His routine in this apartment is not a normal routine, and one day he even eats crumb doughnuts with champagne for breakfast. As much as Inez, Lloyd’s wife, might hope he is making progress, he does not seem to care about the breakdown of his life. “So what?” he says, about having doughnuts and champagne for breakfast.

When Inez comes to visit, Lloyd has been slamming the side of his head with his fist. He has wax...