Chapters 9-12 Summary and Analysis

Gretel Ehrlich met her new husband in Cody, Wyoming while at a John Wayne film festival. The couple was introduced by one of the festival's speakers. The pair ended up sitting next to each other at a showing of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance the next day and spent the entire evening together. Ehrlich refers to her as-yet-unnamed (thus far in the book) husband as being a "culture straddler" - one who could discuss ranching as well as medieval topics. Ten months later, the couple was married.

Ehrlich makes a comical reference to the care package newlyweds often receive at a local courthouse, filled with things like Midol, disposable razors, soap, shaving cream and Kotex. Ehrlich refers to this "Pandora's box of grotesqueries" as being a bleak symbol of marriage and what the couple had to look forward...