73 pages • 2 hours read
The day after Lenny’s visit to his parents, Joshie writes Eunice to lament the “52.3 hours until” (293) he sees her again. He apologizes for his bad heart, which prevents him from doing “enough of the good stuff” (293) in bed. Then, he shares his plan to find her parents different credentials so that they can enter New York: “The new IMF plan is very methodical about occupations” (293) for immigrants into the city.
Joshie mentions his reservations about what he calls Eunice’s father’s “physical and psychological abuse” (294). He wants her to move in with him so that he can “make sure no one ever touches or hurts [her] again” (294).
For the first time, Eunice messages herself: “I’m writing this for me” (294). Claims at happiness are too American for Eunice, who feels ultimately Korean. She admires Joshie’s ability to “let go and focus on something that’s completely outside” (295) himself. She feels like a proper “punishment” for her would be “waking up next to Joshie, getting older every day, while he gets younger” (295).
Eunice wonders if Lenny will forgive her. She feels “like a recycling bin sometimes, with all these things passing through [her] from one person to another, love, hate, seduction, attraction, repulsion” (295).
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By Gary Shteyngart