Summary

Part 5 is titled The Sun and the Moon and the Sun and takes place from January 1940 – December 1941. Chapter 46 opens with Ernest talking about divorcing Pauline and the problems Pauline could cause for him, including financially. Martha dedicates A Stricken Field to Ernest and waits for its publication. When the reviews arrive, much is made about Martha’s appearance and her relationship with Ernest. Martha struggles with the reviews, thinking that it is “one thing to receive bad notices, and another thing entirely to have one’s work be made cheap and meaningless when it was not that” (245). Martha remains in Ernest’s shadow.

In chapter 47, Ernest and Martha are awaiting the arrival of Ernest’s two sons with Pauline. The boys want Martha to fish with them and Gigi asks if Martha is a writer like his father. Ernest comments that the boys...