Chapter 71

He wasn’t actually being mean. Her course had a reputation for being easy—probably deservedly, since the earliest lectures started at eleven and, while they weren’t presented as optional, hardly anyone went to them anyway.

“Yes, but how am I supposed to revise every book written in English from 650 to the present day. That’s”—hervoice went a bit shrill—“not reasonable.”

“Can’t you prioritize the important ones or something?”

“Do I look like Harold Bloom?”

“I’d be able to tell you if I knew who that was.”

Cole could have explained The Western Canon, but nobody deserved that. They'd been on the same staircase in her first year and stuck together ever since, despite having nothing in common.

She was reading Materials, whatever that meant, and constantly getting internships at MIT. She was also captain of the first girls , played basketball, and had recently returned from Uganda, where she’d been part of a team that was