Chapter 22 Summary: poem I wrote after I told you about my joie de vivre
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The speaker opens by apologizing for never having attended the addressee’s play. She then offers a compressed definition of theatre: it consists of actors shouting at audience members to exit rooms, or pleading with them to remain inside. The poem closes with an observation about New York City—that part of its appeal lies in lining up to step over a puddle. The poem captures a moment of confession (the speaker has shared her joie de vivre with someone) and the awkward, mundane aftermath.
Key Events
- The speaker apologises for missing a play performed by the person she is addressing.
- She reflects on the nature of theatre, reducing it to two opposing actions: yelling at people to leave or begging them to stay.
- She comments on New York City, noting that waiting in line to walk over a puddle is considered “cool.”
- The poem implies a prior conversation in which the speaker revealed her joie de vivre, though that exchange is not rendered directly.
Character Development
The speaker presents herself as someone who feels guilt for failing to support another’s artistic work. Her definitions of theatre and of New York suggest a wry, deflationary worldview—she sees the gap between grand artistic ideals and the trivial realities of urban life. The addressee remains a silent, unnamed presence whose response is not recorded.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Performance vs. authenticity: The poem equates theatre with aggressive or desperate demands, undermining the idea of art as refined expression. The speaker’s own confession of joie de vivre may also be a kind of performance.
- Missed connections: The apology for not seeing the play points to a relationship marked by attentiveness on one side and neglect on the other.
- Urban absurdity: Waiting in line to cross a puddle becomes a symbol of New York’s peculiar charm—the city turns inconvenience into spectacle.
- Joie de vivre as fragile: The French phrase suggests a joy that is declared aloud but then undercut by the trivialities of daily life.
Why This Chapter Matters
This single-stanza poem condenses several signature moves of Catherine Cohen’s collection: quick shifts between intimacy and self-deprecation, sardonic definitions, and a location-specific (New York) humor. It demonstrates how a short lyric can carry emotional weight (the apology) while also satirizing pretension. The chapter serves as a miniature case study of the book’s tonal balance between earnest feeling and ironic observation.
Study Questions and Answers
1. What does the speaker’s definition of theatre reveal about her attitude toward performance?
The speaker reduces theatre to yelling at people to leave or begging them to stay. This suggests she views performance as a coercive or desperate act, stripping it of glamour. The definition may also reflect her own discomfort with emotional exposure after confessing her joie de vivre.
2. How does the final line about New York relate to the poem’s opening apology?
Waiting in line to walk over a puddle is a mundane, slightly absurd image. Placed after the apology, it hints that the speaker is using a trivial observation to deflect from the guilt of having missed the play. The coolness of New York becomes a stand-in for the speaker’s attempt to reframe failure as quirky urban experience.
3. Why might the speaker refer to “joie de vivre” in the title but never mention it in the poem itself?
By leaving the phrase outside the body of the poem, Cohen frames the entire text as a postscript to the confession. The poem is the aftermath—the apology and the deflections that follow a moment of vulnerability. The title foregrounds the joy, but the poem itself focuses on what gets broken or trivialized after it is spoken.