Summary

Chapter 13 opens with Gloria Guinness complaining with the other Swans about Truman’s Esquire piece. Gloria is enraged about the piece, worried that she is next, telling the others that she knows she’s next. The others note that she is particularly concerned about herself being next.

The Swans, the narrator tells the audience, do not really know Gloria. Though they travel with her, they were never allowed to hear about the truths of her life, and instead rely on rumors. Gloria, it is said, came from a poor background in Guadalajara or Mexico City or sometimes Veracruz, their uncertainty of her background only reflecting their lack of knowledge. Slim bemoans that she’s a “bullshit artist,” but Truman disagrees with her and assures Slim that she is, in fact, a storyteller (215).

The Chapter then turns to a lyrical narrative of the life...