The Robber Bride

Tony, Roz, and Charis slip out of the restaurant, too cowed by Zenia’s presence to confront her. They go their separate ways, Roz holding back tears and Charis in a state of denial. Tony walks home, trying to plot strategies but coming up empty; Zenia is too unpredictable. That night, she and West settle into normal routines, but Tony frets over whether to tell him about Zenia. When he leaves the room, she finds a paper on his desk with Zenia’s initials and hotel room written on it.

Charis—formerly Karen—is a single mother who lives with her daughter, Augusta. The two have very different sensibilities—Charis’s New Age clutter chafes against Augusta’s modern, minimalist efficiency. They live on an island, away from the city that Charis finds “too clear-cut, too brash, and assertive” (47). She rises in the morning and goes through her morning ritual: yoga, shower, breakfast, and consulting her crystal pendant for its daily prediction. Augusta chides her mother about looking “washed up,” but Charis claims she is happy with herself the way she is, though her certainty has begun to waver. She sees daily reminders of her ex-partner Billy, and she deals with the pain through creative visualization.