Chapter 9, Appetite, Disappointment, Leningrad Summary

The Narrator makes a sumptuous and ample meal and waits for the librarian to arrive. She brings several books and stays for dinner. Her appetite is enormous, and she eats all of the food and then asks for more. As quickly as he cooks, the librarian consumes, until the cupboards are devoid of food. He remarks that her razor-thin body belies such an enormous appetite. She vaguely explains a medical condition and notes that her principle expenditure is for food. After the meal the drink alcohol and then end up naked and intertwined in bed, though the Narrator cannot achieve an erection. Instead, he admires her lean body and small breasts, while they chat about impotence. She explains that she is twenty-nine years old. Instead of having sexual intercourse, she reads salient paragraphs about unicorns from the...