Summary

The narration then states, “It is worth noting what Anders did not remember, given what he did recall” (266). In this moment just before his death, Anders does not recall his first lover, Sherry. He had loved Sherry’s general openness and freedom regarding sex, but this aspect of her eventually irritated him. Anders also does not recall his wife, whom he had once loved, but who had eventually “exhausted him with her predictability” (266). Anders also does not recall his daughter, who is now generally sullen and works as an economics professor at Dartmouth College. He does not recall the time that he overheard his daughter—a young child at the time—chastising her stuffed bear about the bear’s supposed bad behavior. Anders also does not recall any of the lines of poetry he had memorized over the years because he had deemed them...