Pp. 51-72 Summary

The author tells his story in the third-person in "a good time." It takes place in a hotel room in Vegas, and the woman he is with wants to have quick anonymous sex. He declines, choosing to drink instead. She gets annoyed and demands he take her back to L.A. He agrees, saddened by the utter anonymity of the world.

The author tells the story of William Saroyan in "the still trapeze." Saroyan insists he needs to gamble in order to write. He loses all his money at the track and flees the U.S. for France. He returns to America after the Depression, but his optimistic work sells badly post-Depression. He dies an ignominious death in a country that has outgrown him.

The poem "January" is a survey of a world from high to low, where everyone acts according...