Summary

Chapter Three. As she gets dressed for the party she was invited to by Leigh, Queenie momentarily pretends that she is pregnant, extending her belly inside her tight dress – but then angrily stops herself. When she gets to the party, she is greeted by Fran and James, the hosts, who seem very into each other. She also encounters a black man named Sam, describing in narration how he was adopted by a white family; rejects all black culture, to the point where he nicknamed himself “Sambo”; and who looks at her with disdain in a way that, to Queenie, seems the same way as her mother’s boyfriend Roy looked at her. Queenie quickly has a lot to drink, uncomfortably aware (as usual) that she is one of the very few black people in a large social gathering. “It’s best,” she...