Summary

In August 2019, 10 months after the narrator’s mother died, she went to London. She is trying not to “be vague,” which is her “nature” (1). She wanted to know what she “thought about [her] life” (2).

She “found a small hotel in Clerkenwell” (2). The receptionist’s name was Trevor. In order to avoid writing a memoir, all she had to do was invent one man (2). Although she is a writer, she is “not a memoirist” (3).

She settled into her room with her laptop. Two drunk men talked below the window. The last time she was in London was in 2016 with her mother.

Since her mother’s death, friends have sent their condolences. However, “the words grief and mourning” are too “melodramatic” to describe her feelings (5, McCracken’s italics). She simply “missed her” mother (5).

The narrator read emails from the agent selling her mother’s Massachusetts...