Summary

In this chapter we are back in the present, Joan is in Terremoto by herself writing her Costume Gothics, but she doesn’t have her typewriter and handwriting is laborious. Because she needs a disguise, afraid that someone will recognize her, afraid that someone is after her, she goes to Rome to buy hair dye. Once she is in Rome, she remembers standing on the very same street with Arthur only a year ago. She is overcome by grief, sadness and nostalgia and realizes the full reality of what she has done.

Analysis

There is an excerpt from the Costume Gothic that she is working on included in this chapter. In the excerpt Charlotte, a hired hand, is being threatened by the madam of the house. The protagonist, Charlotte, both fears the master and wishes that he would rescue her. Her character also fears that something...