Super Sad True Love Story

Lenny’s journal, a week later, records his experiences with Eunice. One day, they go to the zoo, after hearing news that the animals might be shipped away. Lenny learns the Korean name for elephant, kokiri, when the two stand in front of Sammy the elephant. Eunice kisses Lenny gently, appreciative of his sensitivity.

Lenny is proud of “a positive week” full of “progress” (118) on all his goals. At work, Lenny confronts Darryl, the bully who put him on the list of people to feel bad for. Kelly stands up for Lenny and talks Darryl down publicly; the two leave feeling both “proud and confused” (119) for standing up to him. Later that day, without realizing what is happening, Lenny regains his position at a desk. His name is on the board again.

Determined to do good work, Lenny embraces the data on the “white, beatific, mostly male faces” (121) of prospective clients for the company. Lenny picks some key profiles, mostly for the “fear” they cannot hide that “all the wealth and sinecures they had amassed” were about to “lapse into the voice a tragedy before which all tragedies were scandalously trite” (121).

Lenny lays out the details to Barry, one potential intake. He goes under the “willingness-to-persevere-in-difficult-conditions test,” the “Infinite Sadness Endurance Test” (123), and others. Barry, who is sad but persistent, is exhausted by these tests. Lenny already knows that he “would not make the cut” and is “doomed” (123).

Feeling bad about Barry and also himself, Lenny seeks out Joshie. He hopes that Joshie will give him discounted dechronification procedures. Lenny wishes he could more effectively manipulate Joshie by pointing out that Joshie would have to watch him die. The two admire an image of Eunice that pops up on Lenny’s äppärät.

The day after Lenny returns to his desk, he and Eunice travel to Long Island to meet Lenny’s parents. Lenny is “drowning in appreciation” for this “major kindness” (125). He also feels kinship with her immigrant “elder-worship” (126); any immigrant traits seem to draw them together in his mind. The train also brings out some negative memories of Asian-Americans, such as the kids who would ride the train with him to a Manhattan Math and Science high school and mock him for his low GPA. One Korean girl, also named Eunice, would defend Lenny.

In the group of National Guard soldiers stationed to check the äppäräti of the disembarking passengers, Lenny notices “the tiredness of failure imposed on a country that believed only in its opposite” (128). One, whose accent marks him as southern, pulls Lenny away to question his alert. When the soldier learns of Lenny’s job, he is released. As he and Eunice walk away, Lenny notices the name of “the frighteningly profitable security branch of [his company’s] parent company” (129) on the side of the tank. He asks himself: “What the hell [is] going on here?” (129).

Although he knows that his family is less well-off than Eunice’s, Lenny is still excited to introduce her to “the most important corner of [his] life” (129). His parents, who often live just in their underwear, are surprised and embarrassed to see Eunice when they greet Lenny at the door. Once his mother is clothed, she excitedly converses with Eunice about Lenny’s housekeeping skills. Meanwhile, Lenny reels with a sense of devotion to his father.

Lenny feels himself “become twelve years old as soon as [he passes] the mezuzah at the front door” (132). While his mother spirits Eunice away, Lenny sits with his father, attempting to work some Russian into his English. He manages to give his father “a photocopy of who [he was], without telling him that [he] was unhappy and humiliated and often, just like him, all alone” (133).

His father is mostly disconnected from the world around him, except for the two televisions that give him constant access to the news on “the Fox” (133). While his father expresses hope in Security State Israel’s future, Lenny shares news of Nettie Fine. He also shares her opinion that “the people in the parts are going to rise up,” especially “the ex-National Guardsmen” (134). When he walks upstairs to the bathroom, he notices his parents’ sepia-stained photographs of their past life in the Soviet Union.

Lenny’s childhood bedroom, now emptied of all his things, causes him to reminisce about his teenage years. The purchase of the home was incredibly meaningful; it had been a sign that “the janitor and his wife had done something right at last” (135). On the wall in the hallway, framed, he finds a copy of an essay his father wrote in English and which he, Lenny, had proofread before it was printed in his father’s company’s newsletter.

When Lenny comes downstairs again, Eunice looks uncomfortable in her conservative, almost “Orthodox getup” (137). Surrounded by love, fish, vodka, and confusing language, Eunice’s mind seems to be “absorbing” (137) the scene in fear. Lenny’s mother asks Eunice about her son's work. When Eunice explains that Lenny helps people live forever, his father grows angry. He is also frustrated that Lenny traveled to Italy for a year but never comes to see them.

Although Lenny wants to be “a private person with [his] own little world” (140), his parents have already seen streams and data about him. They think he is failing because of his bullying colleague. Eunice sides with Lenny’s parents that he needs to work to get off of the “People to Feel Bad For” list. This bonds Eunice with his mother, and Lenny explains: “It is quite easy for two smart women, no matter what the gap in their ages and backgrounds, to come to a complete agreement about me” (140). 

Eunice writes to Grillbitch again. She tells her friend that she misses her and then complains about the length of her hair and her “ajumma” (141), or old woman, hips. Eunice explains that she’s growing intimidated by how “brain-smart” (141) Lenny is. She is also intimidated by his love for her; she wants “to want him as much as he wants” (141) her.

Eunice admits that she enjoyed meeting Lenny’s mother, who she admires because she is assertive. Less odd than that visit was watching Lenny read a book. She is amazed at his intelligence, and the fact that “he’s too nice and humble to flaunt the fact that he knows so much” (142). Eunice has nothing to say to him. He thinks that she feels he is “an idiot” (142). Lenny sees kinship in their immigrant families, while Eunice is offended at the comparison.

Eunice is also worried about Sally, who seems sad and who has put on weight. The two of them visit another park in the East Village where “Low Net Worth Individuals” (143) camp out. Eunice decides to give her äppäräti to the families there. As she leaves the park after donating her technology, she sees an old sign on a fountain that says “Temperance, Charity, Faith, Hope” (144), and it makes her think of her father.

Grillbitch writes back, hungover, talking about crazy parties and her fear that her boyfriend, Gopher, is having an affair. She explains the debasing images she sent to him to win him over again, but she still wonders why neither of them can find a good man. Although she still encourages Eunice to break things off with Lenny, she is proud of Sally for her political action and proud of Eunice for her sympathy for the poor.

The next day, Eunice’s GlobalTeens account shows a message from her mother. She has discovered that Eunice is not living with her friend Joy Lee and suspects her of “living now with some meeguk boy in dirty apartment” (146) in the city.

Instead of a response to her mother, Eunice’s account sees a conversation between her and Lenny over the dirty bathroom. Lenny is busy at work, but Eunice is frustrated at his calm. She expresses impatience that Lenny cannot change his cleaning and laundry habits faster, but he slowly works to make things up to her.