Pages 53-60 Summary

Holly and the narrator have a lot of fun together over the next few weeks until the narrator gets a job. Then their schedules are completely different. Holly spends most of her time with Rusty Trawler, Mag Wildwood, and Jose Ybarra-Jaegar (his mother was German). They make an odd quartet, but they spend all their idle time together.

One day, the narrator sees Holly slip out of a taxi and run up the steps of the public library. Curious as to why Holly would go to a library, he follows her in and finds her at a table, surrounded by a fortress of books where she is laboriously writing with a pencil. Watching her reminds the narrator of a girl he knew in school, Mildred Grossman. Mildred was unkempt and unattractive, but somehow there is a connection between these two. After...