47 pages • 1 hour read
Chelsea G. SummersA Certain Hunger
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Corpse Reviver # 2”
Dorothy Daniels recalls drinking a cocktail called the Corpse Reviver #2 at the NoMad Hotel bar in 2013 in New York. Citing an 1871 edition of The Gentleman’s Table Guide, she describes the drink’s origins. Like many hangover cures and cocktails, the Corpse Reviver #2 came about during Prohibition.
Dorothy met Casimir, a stockbroker and poet, at the NoMad bar. They had sex in his room soon after meeting.
As she writes in her prison cell in the present, Dorothy wonders why she killed Casimir. During and after her trial, the tabloids called her the “MILF Killer” and shared the lurid details of the murder (15).
Dorothy took Casimir to a stranger’s house on Fire Island. She picked him up at the ferry, and they cooked and ate duck together. After rhapsodizing about the versatility and taste of duck fat in the present, Dorothy describes Casimir’s murder. During sex, she impulsively stabbed him with an ice pick in the throat, in the eyes, and between the ribs. She then burned his body in the stranger’s house before going to a friend’s house nearby and watching television.
