41 pages 1 hour read

Tayari Jones

Silver Sparrow

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

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Part 2, Chapters 20-23 Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon”

Part 2, Chapter 20 Summary: “Blowout”

Chaurisse and Dana decide to attend a house party at Marcus’s together. Dana brings matching tube tops for them to wear, and once they change clothes, they leave in Chaurisse’s car. They stop for gas, at which point Chaurisse explains she always has to get full service because James doesn’t want her pumping the gas herself. On the way there, Dana reveals that anger at Marcus made her want to attend the party, and Chaurisse confesses that she slept with Jamal. They talk about college, at which point Chaurisse tells Dana that she did not get into Mount Holyoke. They then have a tire blowout, which Chaurisse handles calmly, while Dana panics, thinking they have met their deaths. She worries over dying before having had a chance to attend Mount Holyoke, which reminds Chaurisse it isn’t death preventing her from attending Mount Holyoke but her own inadequacies. 

Part 2, Chapter 21 Summary: “The Men All Paused”

Chaurisse pulls over at a gas station and says they should call James because she has bent the rim. Dana says this is unnecessary and that she will find someone to fix it in the gas station. While Dana goes in, Chaurisse calls James and asks him and Raleigh to come get them.