Scene 17 Summary

Back in her New York apartment, J.S. speaks into a tape recorder to Melissa (even though, as she herself says, she has no idea where Melissa is). She speaks of Zlata having made her American life impossible. America makes no sense to her, she says, and that she is happy. She says she has no ambition anymore, adding that her ambition was what made her "always unhappy, always long for more. Longing to be someone, to count, to matter, to make it."

As the Bosnian women appear in the shadowy background, making coffee, J.S. says she is with them "in that refugee camp in the middle of nowhere," sitting and trying to trust each other, "and in between the tears," she says, "we take little sips of mad, thick coffee."

Scene 17 Analysis

The first level of function to this brief scene...