August through December, 1958 Summary and Analysis

On August 3, Carolina says that the family will eat beans because there is nothing else. On August 6, Carolina gives her son "congratulations" on his tenth birthday and it's all she has to give him. She walks with her children to town and writes the Vera "choked on her own saliva" as she looked at cheese in a shop window. The sole words of August 10 are, "Father's Day. What a ridiculous day!" A nine-year-old boy who smells of alcohol throws stones at Carolina's children. Carolina sends a note to the Mello Brothers Circus, asking for a job as a singer. She writes of other neighborhood gossip.

Carolina hears of a place where she might get papers and goes there with Vera. They ride the elevator to the fourth floor and the woman gives her bags of newspapers. She...