The Golden Notebook

Janet goes away to boarding school, and Anna sinks into a kind of malaise. She knows that when Janet returns from school, she will revert back to her responsible self, but right now, she has too much time on her hands. She begins cutting out articles from the newspaper and pasting them all over her walls. She tries to make sense of the fragments, but if any common thread exists, it eludes her. She has not written in her notebooks since the incident with Tommy.

Molly sends over a new prospective tenant, an American named Milt. He asks her to sleep with him; she does. He takes down all of her pastings and tries to read her notebooks. She asks him not to, but he does anyway. They bicker back and forth about the nature of their relationship. Anna finally asks him to stay; he says he must leave.

After he goes, Janet returns from school, finding her mother “in the process of finding another, smaller flat, and getting a job” (664). Molly has called to say that she is getting married and leaving her house to Marion and Tommy. Tommy will begin working for Richard soon; Marion is running a dress shop.