Summary

In an e-mail to Marisa, Aaron refers to his work with the professor: “whatever papers we write on this material will be published … which somewhat eases the pain of dealing with Watt” (199). Just as Aaron thinks Helen will “ease up and behave like a human,” she gives him the impression that “she turns a corner leaving her office and is shelved overnight in some storage unit for the terminally pedantic” (199). He writes of Helen’s referral of the 17th century hidden Jews as “crypto-Jews” and of studying Jews as though they are “her favorite insects pinned to the wall” (200).

Aaron reflects on the struggling progress of his dissertation, “the sickening sweep of his months in London rising like bile in his throat” (200). Darcy had consoled him with “a mildness that Aaron suspected was as close as the man came to warmth: dark nights of...