“…he wished Sylvie’d admire him. He doubted she was even aware of it, though, the generosity of his intentions….She gave no indication of being aware of it, and there wasn't any way he could think of to make her aware of it without undermining his claim to generosity, if not the generosity itself. If you ask that your generosity be acknowledged as generosity, did that not transform it into something— or reveal it to be something-other than generosity?

Enough fucking Talmud.”

Gladman, a comedian and writer, loses his entire family to a sinkhole. A benefit concert and Mount Chicago, a monument commemorating the dead, are in the works. Apter, from the Chicago mayor’s office, asks Gladman to perform. He agrees but first Apter must agree to take Gladman’s Quaker parrot, Gogol, for a few days.

“‘The goal of every memorial should be to be as moving as Auschwitz, but at the same time, that does not necessarily mean that the goal of every memorial should be to be as depressing. So what I want, I'm saying, is I want Mount Chicago to achieve that level of being moving, but also, at the same time, to be less depressing.’

‘Than Auschwitz,’ said Apter.

‘I want it to be a less depressing Auschwitz.’

‘A less depressing Auschwitz,’ said Apter.

‘Our less depressing Auschwitz,’ said the mayor.”