Chapter 10 Summary and Analysis
⚠️ 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 chapter opens with Ollie appearing at their mother's condo carrying only a yoga mat and a backpack. She tells Mom she had been living in Denver with a naturopathic doctor and left because he became too serious. Amy, still jobless months after Josh moved out, is skeptical, but Mom insists Ollie can stay.
In the first weeks, Ollie agrees to see a dentist, dermatologist, and gynecologist, and reports no cavities—a small victory Mom celebrates as if it were a major achievement. Mom takes Ollie shopping and says nothing about her new tattoos. The two bond over Clinique cosmetics, healthy cooking (tofu, tempeh, hummus, green tea), and nightly Turner Classic Movies with apples and peanut butter. Ollie finds a part-time job baking sourdough bread at a New Haven health food store. They begin morning walks and talk about a Lake District walking tour; Mom starts reading Wordsworth and Coleridge. Ollie mentions interest in psychology or criminology classes.
Amy watches this transformation with ambivalence, telling herself it won't last and feeling guilty for hoping it won't. Ollie isn't in therapy or on medication, and Mom has embraced alternative medicine—Chinese medicine, ginger, turmeric, St. John's wort, meditation, and Himalayan singing bowls.
A month in, Ollie hears about a foreclosed bakery in a struggling part of New Haven. She drags Mom to see it, and they return a second time. Ollie persuades Mom to call the realtor. The bakery was once the premier Italian bakery in New Haven. Ollie has grand plans and names it Dough. Dad, on board, writes a $70,000 check—easier than digging into details. Amy warns him it's ambitious, but Dad insists Ollie needs a shot and calls her a born salesman.
Four months later, Ollie disappears with the money. Mom is flattened. She had already ordered tiles, fixtures, fifty-pound bags of Vermont flour, bakery twine, and embroidered aprons. She must cancel permits, insurance, and the health inspection, then auction off the new equipment. The pink neon Dough sign isn't returnable; Amy stashes it in the back of Mom's closet. Mom throws out the powders, capsules, yoga mats, and singing bowls.
Amy is consumed by anger and obsessive sightings of Ollie—on subway platforms, in lines, crossing streets. She avoids elevators when a woman with Ollie's blond ringlets steps in. She watches a woman who looks exactly like Ollie struggle to light a cigarette. Then, gradually, days pass without Amy thinking of her sister at all.
Amy confesses to Mom that her job search has been half-hearted. Mom insists she see Rena Adler, a career counselor from one of Mom's bridge cruises. Rena's office is full of Scandinavian furniture, ficus trees, and a crystal pendant. Rena herself is a version of Mom who took EST seminars, left her husband, and became a life coach. She drills Amy with questions and hands her a copy of What Color Is Your Parachute?, calling it their bible.
Meanwhile, Mom has met Al Gottfried, a widower at her condo, and they're going to a movie. Amy is happy for her.
At the second session, Rena suggests editorial work at science magazines, tells Amy to get two suits and a little heel, and bluntly says Amy seems depressed, handing her a therapist's card. Amy calls Paul Weiss, MSW. Mom is dismissive—she doesn't see how a social worker can help—but pays for Amy's Ann Taylor suit anyway.
Amy begins therapy with Paul Weiss, who works out of his apartment behind a partition. He has the empathic face of a Saint Bernard, wears paisley socks, and starts every session by crossing his legs and clasping his hands. Amy worries she won't have enough to talk about, but the fifty minutes fly by. She asks whether to leave the door open or closed; Paul says either way, and maintains that stance whenever she asks over the following years.
After about a month of therapy, Amy notices a hair salon sign: