APS TOGETHER
Day 7
Chapter 3, pp. 123-142 (through “She held her hand over her heart and smiled to herself.”)
December 9, 2020 by Claire Messud
For Miss Gamelon, “reality was often more frightening…than her wildest dreams” (p.123) – a plight of those without imagination. Given that for many of us the inverse is true, it’s helpful to recall that there are those repeatedly astounded by what is.
Arnold’s father visits and wants to stay: “You see what a new leaf I have really turned over…You mustn’t ever think people have only one nature. Everything I said to you the other night was wrong.” (p.133) For various reasons, Miss Goering is dismayed.
Miss Goering decides she must take a trip alone at night, upsetting though it will be. “It is not for fun that I am going,” she says, “but because it is necessary to do so.” (p.137) An echo of her serious childhood game.