Still Me

The chapter opens with an email from Louisa to her mom describing how Halloween and Thanksgiving are celebrated in grand style in New York and apologizing for not having called home much.

Mr. Gopnik wants a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at his place with his closest family; this sends Agnes “into a persistent funk” (214). Louisa books tickets to travel home for Christmas, and Treena says she will introduce her new partner, Eddie, to the family then. Louisa runs into Meena and Ashok in the lobby on the weekend, and they invite her to join them at the march to save the library. Louisa arrives in Washington Heights thinking that she is “suddenly in a very different New York” (218).

The protest is composed of a crowd more diverse than just “the color of people’s skin, or the styles of their clothes” (219). Louisa observes that this area is as much a part of the city as the “glossy towers of Midtown” (221). Meena takes Louisa in to see the library, which is old but filled with people and families. As Ashok, Meena, and Louisa leave after the protest, Ashok stresses the importance of fighting to save the library as a space for community and a resource for empathy and learning: “You shut a library […] you don’t just shut down a building, you shut down hope” (222).