Book I Summary and Analysis

As the story opened, the personality called Renee was thinking about her life. She had been married to a man named Keith but he had recently asked for a divorce. She said that she initially believed that he'd only wanted her to "shape up" because she sometimes forgot to please him. She then realized that she was at a window and had been considering jumping during her thoughts about her life. She didn't remember getting up from her desk or going to the window. She said that she didn't want to commit suicide but thought about it "a lot." She blamed drugs taken during high school.

She worked at the University of Chicago and had spent most of her life "walking a tightrope," so that she felt she was good at it. Still, at this moment she felt out...