NARRATOR: A romantic about most things, Max employed his realist side to get through the trauma of Jennie's death. How much more alone can a man be when he loses the woman to whom he devoted his life? After living with his family during the seven months of Jennie's hospitalization, he was now back in the environment he had shared with her. He was living in the same apartment with the same neighbors, all in the same phase of their lives.

Max made this initial adjustment superbly, but he was not yet ready to re-enter the active world. His excuse that he would gain weight in the Catskills is misplaced. In reality. his reluctance was due to an unwillingness to meet new people; to once again be his social self.