All's Well

Miranda Fitch, the novel’s protagonist and narrator, is an assistant professor in the struggling Theater Department of a small New England college. She suffers from chronic pain in her hip, back, and legs, and one late afternoon, she lies on her office floor to try and relieve her pain. She watches a commercial for a drug that claims to treat nerve pain, and she scoffs at its portrayal of suffering before her laptop battery dies. Fauve, her colleague and an adjunct in the department, knocks on Miranda’s door, and Miranda stays quiet and hides until she leaves. She dislikes Fauve, believing she is vying for her job; also, she knows Fauve intends to remind her about play rehearsal she is supposed to be directing, and Miranda is in too much pain to do so. Shortly after, Grace, Miranda’s assistant director and a tenured professor in the department, arrives. Miranda likes Grace, and she recalls that the two of them used to be close. She notes that Grace always seems to be in the pink of health, in contrast with her own debilitating pain. She closes an open window in Miranda’s office—it was letting in snowflakes from the outside and Miranda couldn’t close it herself.