Summary

In “At My House,” the narrator has a childhood friend come visit from living abroad with her husband and young daughter. She hosts the family at her house, and as they talk, she realizes that her friend’s husband, an academic man, is rather pompous and ill-mannered and dominates the conversation. While her friend goes to the bathroom, the husband asks the narrator to borrow a book and she politely declines. Her friend and her family leave shortly thereafter, and the narrator regrets that she did not get to spend time alone with her friend. She also discovers a pen mark on her white leather couch that the child made, and realizes the husband must have seen it while gathering the daughter’s things but did not say anything.

“In August” moves the time of the novel forward...