Summary

Part Four: Winter, the final section of the novel, opens up with older Charlie reflecting on the dissolution of his relationship with Fran. Altogether, they dated for approximately five months. With Fran off at university creating a new life for herself, Charlie feels left behind and burdensome as he remains in town to watch over his father. In November, Charlie and Fran have an accident in which a condom breaks, and Fran quickly takes a morning after pill. Not that Charlie wants a child, but he realizes that taking care of a baby would be much less disruptive to his own life than it would be to Fran’s. He declares, “An inequality had been illuminated, of achievement and potential, ambition and desire” (373). The two end their relationship messily in early January of the following year.

Charlie then describes the succession of the...