Bloomington is recalled as the destination of a remarkably busy book-signing stop, where sales ran out before the day did. The visit turns a place name into a compact scene of readers returning, books disappearing, and one last signing on the way to the airport.

The Book-Signing Visit

The party went to Bloomington after an earlier stop in Detroit. There, the bookseller’s account was emphatic: 400 books and 190 copies of Interview sold, with everything gone. The narrator suspected that people were joining the line again, becoming repeat customers rather than simply making one pass through it.

The Last Signing and Departure

The schedule left little room to linger: they had to leave at 7:30 to catch an 8:30 plane. On the drive to the airport, after a whole day of signing, the woman who had driven them suddenly appeared with a stack of books of her own to be autographed. The unexpected request made the departure feel like a final scene in a movie, extending the signing beyond the organized event and into the journey out of Bloomington.