Chapter 7 focuses on Larry’s professional and literary activities in Madison. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Larry writes several short stories, a few of which are published. Larry also writes a novel, the content of which is not described. As Sally’s due date draws near, Larry grows more anxious. Describing himself as an “overachiever, a workaholic” (97), he puts deliberate effort into dividing his time between life and work. The constant danger is that he will neglect Sally, and his method of dividing his time is stark:

 Early in our time in Madison I stuck a chart on the concrete wall of my furnace room. It reminded me every morning that there are one hundred sixty-eight hours in a week. Seventy of those I dedicated to sleep, breakfasts, and dinners (chances for socializing with Sally in all of those areas) (97).

 These anxieties are intensified as the darkening storm of the incipient World War gathers: “We loved our life; we never looked up from it except when rallies for the Spanish Loyalists ruffled the waters of the university [...] or when Hitler’s frothing voice over our radio reminded us that we were on a bumpy gangplank leading from world depression to possible world war” (102-3).