Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 Summary and Analysis

In Chapter 7, Lucy found strength and camaraderie in suffering and cruelty. It helped her deal with her own life. Lucy wrote in a letter that she read Primo Levi's Auschwitz book and it comforted her. She pretended she was in a concentration camp for days. It made her think about writing non-fiction instead of a novel. Lucy wrote in another letter about her visit to Prague. She visited the old Jewish ghetto and saw the children's drawings of Terezin, the concentration camp. She was moved and upset. She cried. She felt empty about art. It was her 28th birthday.

In Chapter 8, when Ann was young, she thought being a starving writer would be romantic and glamorous. It was not. Lucy fell into a lucky situation at Yaddo because she and the writers lived in a beautiful mansion...