Summary

In Part 1, Chapter 3, the narrator is back in the town where she resides. She goes to a local gym, which she has been regularly attending for years. Another regular at the gym is a woman whose name the narrator has forgotten. The narrator’s first conversation with the woman was years ago, when the woman was in her twenties. The woman was reading the novel Infinite Jest; the woman said that she appreciated its length, which would give her a lot of reading time. The woman is now middle-aged, and she seems upset by the fact that her body has become less conventionally attractive over time. The woman airs these grievances to the narrator in the locker room. The narrator thinks about aging. She recalls an elderly woman who stated that she received less and less attention from people in general as she aged...