Summary

Narration switches to present tense, third person as the author describes giving a first draft of the book to Harry (who, for the first time, is also referred to by the male gender pronouns “he” and “him”), who becomes unhappy with the way he is portrayed and how resentful the author becomes. “How,” she asks both Harry and the reader, “can a book be both a free expression and a negotiation?” (46). This section concludes to how the author realized, as she was contemplating the possibility of writing a book with Harry, that writing had defined her individual identity for so long that she wasn’t yet ready to let it become something else.

Narration then switches back to past tense as the author describes her tendency to talk a lot both in her life and in her teaching, which leads her to...