Chapters 8 and 9 Summary

After a year of living "as a fat man" and becoming more disillusioned with how he is viewed by other men, the narrator loses forty pounds and writes a bad play. "Then," he comments, "he met Sean," a very attractive young man who comes to the apartment looking for the Russian dancer and who, just as he leaves, indicates that he finds the narrator attractive. As they spend time together, the narrator realizes he's falling in love but not entirely sure what he can/should do about it. He comments that the relationship with Sean was developing right around the time that both Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy died, circumstances which seem to contribute to his overall uncertainty about the relationship. One night, after Sean prepares dinner and the narrator watches him, trying to rein in his fantasies about their...