“What Dr. Rose Pimlott knows about war you could stick in your ear. But her ignorance is willed: mainly she just wants war to get out of her way and stop being such a nuisance.”

One of Tony’s colleagues at her university disparages the way in which Tony teaches her course, preferring a more “victim-oriented” approach. Tony finds this ridiculous as “They were all victims!” (22). Atwood takes a swipe at revisionist academics who place politics before facts. Dr. Pimlott lacks the stomach for the actual brutality of war. She would prefer it to be taught according to her own morally righteous worldview rather than the way it was waged: competing strategies to see which side could kill more of the other side, bloody and brutal without the convenient politics of victimhood.

“As with such groups, there are more people present around the table than can be accounted for.”

When Tony, Charis, and Roz meet for lunch, they discuss fashion and politics but not the one thing that has kept them together for so many years: Zenia. Invoking her name might reawaken the slumbering evil; and although they would rather talk about anything else, they all know the reason they are there. Zenia’s presence will always be with them whether they mention her name or not. She is the fourth member of the group, waiting to be exorcised from their collective conscience. She is the booze at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting or the ex-spouse at a support group for divorced people, lingering at the margins and seeking purchase in the physical world.