On Beauty

Nine months later, in Wellington, Massachusetts, it’s a hot weekend in August. Ever since Jerome got back from London, Kiki feels like he’s become 16 again: he’s always acting depressed and sarcastic, and he’s constantly writing in his diary. He has also been threatening not to return to Brown in the fall. Even after all this time, he hasn’t given Kiki any details about what happened with Victoria.

In fact, for Jerome it was less about falling in love with Victoria and more about liking the whole Kipps family. He liked being able to live according to their simple, conservative beliefs, like their ideas that art came from God and that people from minority racial groups wanted rights that they hadn’t earned.

Victoria had liked Jerome, and they did have sex, but she had always figured he would leave in the summer. Now, in the present, Kiki tries to convince Jerome to come to a summer festival that Zora is already at, but Jerome continues to write in his diary. At last, he grudgingly agrees, and they take their dog, Murdoch, with them.

At the fair, Jerome quickly wants to get away from Kiki.  Kiki begins talking with a man running one of the stalls who’s from Haiti. They talk about how the difficult conditions in Haiti have caused so many people to immigrate to the Wellington area. Just as the as the stall owner is showing Kiki how to put on an anklet, Warren Malcolm sneaks up on Kiki from behind and squeezes her to surprise her. Kiki also sees Claire Malcolm over at a stall selling massage oils.

Kiki finishes up buying the anklet. She finds that, now that she is “too old” for sex in the eyes of men like Warren, they find her funny and flirt with her because they think there’s no chance of her taking it seriously. Claire comes over and asks Kiki to come walk around with them. Warren begins to talk about his research on pollutants affecting crops. Claire is a famous experimental poet, but she always finds things to say about Warren’s work.

Claire mentions she hasn’t seen Howard in a long time and asks Kiki about Howard’s progress on his Rembrandt book. Claire starts talking more about painting and Rembrandt, and Kiki doesn’t really know what to say other than that she thinks Howard doesn’t like Rembrandt and is arguing against the myth of his greatness.

Claire casually mentions that Warren is her “husband,” then she gets disappointed when Kiki doesn’t notice that she used the word. Claire reveals that she and Warren got married in relative secrecy two months ago, with Claire dressing up in a sequined dress as Salomé because it was the feast day of St. John the Baptist. Jerome comes over, and Claire repeats the whole wedding story again.

Just as Claire and Warren are about to leave, Kiki asks if there’s anything new that Howard should know. Claire mentions that there are a few new lecturers coming to Wellington, including Monty, who will have an office in the Black Studies department near Erskine. Both Kiki and Jerome are shocked and a little amused about Howard’s rival Monty coming to campus, but Claire doesn’t understand the big deal.

Jerome wonders if Monty will bring his whole family. Kiki suggests that perhaps to be safe, Jerome should avoid the whole issue by making sure he returns to Brown (instead of dropping out or taking a leave of absence, as he’s considering). Jerome says that, unlike Kiki, he doesn’t just ignore problems— implying that Howard did something to hurt Kiki in the past but neither of them have fully addressed the misstep. Jerome asks what the point of a family even is if it doesn’t make the members happier than they’d be if they were alone, then he leaves.