Summary

Chapter 8 follows the perspectives of Alizée and Lee. Alizée has difficulty drawing in class; “if it wasn’t getting to her gut, it wasn’t getting to the paper. She was overthinking, which always meant bad work” (50). She is drawing a nude model at the Hoffman School of Fine Art, and knows her teacher, Hans, will “trash her and her work into the scrap heap where they belonged” (50). Lee watches Alizée working beside her, “completely absorbed” (51). She sees similarities between the work of Alizée, Jack, and Mark: “she often envied them their focus, their ability to completely separate from their surroundings” (51). Lee recognizes a “sadness” in Alizée, who “tried to vanquish this with jokes and brash confidence … often no more than a veneer” (51). Lee examines Alizée’s piece: “the model was still there, simultaneously present and absent...