Chapters 3 and 4 Summary

In Chapter 3, we return to the present reality of Anna's life as a divorcee. She writes letters to her family members with the unpleasant news of her divorce, and as she does so she is burdened by the set of unspoken expectations for professional and personal success that dominate her mother's side of the family. She receives a response letter from her grandfather, who invites Anna and Molly to spend Thanksgiving with the family. Anna decides they will go.

Anna feels awkward around her family and, when asked at dinner what she does professionally, finds herself half-jokingly talking about her new job as a rat handler in a laboratory. Her grandfather chastises her for her flippancy and later calls her into his study, where he offers her money so that Molly will not have to go to daycare. Anna refuses his...