Part 1 Summary

Elizabeth thinks back on many of the moments in her life, giving impressions rather than telling entire stories. She begins to reveal what her childhood was like, growing up in the South, mostly in Kentucky, as part of a family obsessed with horse racing.

Elizabeth jumps around in time a lot in her narrative, which reflects the way in which she has moved around a lot in life. Her storytelling is more like the reminiscing of someone who is going through an old drawer of mementos, explaining the little anecdote that goes with each one. Some items seem unimportant, and are just moments in a life. Others have had lasting significance, but Elizabeth has been around long enough to recognize the folly and struggle of everyone's lives, and she does not romanticize any particular moment, unless she admits that she is being self-indulgent...