The Epigraph at the beginning of the book, a quotation by poet Audre Lorde, reads: “You become strong by doing the things you need to be strong for. This is the way genuine learning takes place. That’s a very difficult way to live, but it has also served me. It’s been an asset as well as a liability.” What does Lorde mean by this? How does this quotation reflect the plot and themes evident within Mock’s memoir?

As a work of nonfiction, much of the memoir is dictated my Mock’s memory, which she acknowledges as subjective. How does this contribute to and/or detract from the importance that experience and subjectivity play within the work?

The memoir begins and ends with anecdotes that take place in New York in 2009. Does this circularity of time and place reflect the narrative trajectory and themes of the memoir? Why or why not?