Summary

In "The Immigrant Story," the narrator talks to her husband, Jack, about sorrow and grief. When he tells her a story from his childhood, the narrator interprets it in a way Jack never considered. He gets annoyed, wanting her to "just listen" (240). He tells another story about his parents, their life in Poland, and in America.

In "The Long-Distance Runner," when Faith was around 42, she started running. One day she encountered a group of young black boys. They teased her for her appearance. She told them she once lived in this neighborhood, too. They stopped being unkind, and listened. She discovered they lived in the same apartment where she had grown up. When they took her to the apartment, she met a girl inside. She told the girl about the building. Faith pretended she did not want to see her...