Kavalier and Clay are very successful. 1941 is their best year. Sam buys a new house for his mother and grandmother to live in. He and Joe move into a new, modern apartment at Rosa’s behest.

Sam’s love life comes up in conversation; Rosa tries to set him up with a girl she knows from work, Barbara Drazin. Sam isn’t interested and gives an excuse about not wanting to date college girls, saying that college people make him feel unintelligent. Rosa already told Barbara that Sam has written three novels. Sam is not at all proud of those “pulp” novels; that’s why he writes under a pseudonym. Joe mentions to Rosa that Sam is working on a “real” novel, American Disillusionment. Sam wonders about his dating life and why he doesn’t like dating college girls.

Sam goes to the Empire office and begins working on the first chapter of the aforementioned novel. While writing, he thinks about Rosa, and though he knows she’s beautiful, he feels “only the faintest itch for her” (295). Sam’s mother calls. She invites Sam, Joe, and Rosa over for dinner. Sam puts his novel away and begins work on a story for a new comic about a crime-fighting female boxer.