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This chapter-by-chapter summary contains plot spoilers!
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The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing: Pages 517 – 530
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Blue Notebook: (Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) Anna fends off inquiries from people who want to rent the upstairs flat now that she's kicked Ivor out. She doesn't want to rent to anyone anymore but knows she needs the money.
Her daughter Janet begs to be allowed to go to boarding school. (Who could blame the poor kid?) Anna feels mixed astonishment and disdain that a daughter of hers would turn out to be so conventional. She knows that she has no patience with conventional people who don't "experiment with themselves" and test boundaries. She would respect her daughter more if Janet were a rebel, yet maternal protectiveness makes her want to spare her daughter the experience. She agrees to let Janet go to boarding school.
Molly calls and urges Anna to rent her flat to an American named Saul Green whom Molly has recently met. Molly says he's a fellow socialist like them. Anna whines and protests and drags her feet, saying that he'll probably be an awful person. Americans strike her as being cool and shut off with a glass pane between themselves and the rest of the world.
Anna sends Janet off to boarding school and then gets the upstairs flat ready to rent to Saul Green. She thinks about a game she used to play as a child: she would visualize progressively larger and larger versions of her surroundings (Britain, the world, the solar system …) while holding the smallness of her own room as a contrast. The mental dexterity necessary to do this exhilarated her, and she thinks it might do her good to go back to practicing it.
Saul Green shows up to inspect the flat, and seems preoccupied and abrupt. He strikes her as slight, intense, and a little odd. His clothes hang on him as if he's lost weight recently due to illness. Meanwhile he's raking her over in hostile, sexual appraisal. However, in the next minute, he says something sympathetic and perceptive about Molly, which makes Anna realize that he understands and appreciates "free women" like her and Molly who are attempting to live on their own. She breaks off their discussion because she has to get ready to meet another producer who wants to buy the rights to Frontiers of War.
Later Anna returns home and tells Saul Green that she's decided once again not to sell. She expects he will say what everyone does: that she's a fool. Instead, Saul impresses her by understanding her need to take a stand and not sell out. Apparently he used to write for Hollywood and knows all about the pressure to sell out. He lectures her some more. She notices his unconsciously sexual way of standing and remembers his earlier perceptiveness towards women, and wonders at the contrast.
The next day, Anna works at playing her childhood visualization game, but she's no longer very good at it. She realizes that having Janet gone to boarding school removes much needed stability from her life. Time seems meaningless now that she no longer has parental caretaking duties to anchor her to reality. Molly calls up and expresses the opinion that Saul Green would be great for a one-night stand, but is not the sort you'd want to get involved with.
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