Chapters 3-4 Summary and Analysis

In chapter 3, Shirley gets out of the shower and goes downstairs for dinner. As Shirley walks into the kitchen, she finds herself thinking of her cook and her husband. Marie is crippled with arthritis, but despite this affliction she will not allow anyone in her kitchen, not even Shirley. Marie is a strong, independent woman who takes her job seriously. However, on the night her husband collapses, it is Shirley she turns too. Shirley remembers rushing into the room Marie shares with her husband and holding him as he dies. He is the first dead person Shirley has ever seen and it impacts her profoundly. Shirley also recalls visiting Clifford Odets as he lies dying and hearing him express a desire to live so he could write about the pleasure in things no larger than a fly's eye.

The...