Commitment

Contents Cover Other Titles Title Page Copyright Contents Dedication Epigraph Book 1: Walter Aziz, America Book 2: A Moral Treatment Book 3: A Building Somewhere in California Book 4: The Bouquets Book 5: Family Week Book 6: The Commons Acknowledgments A Note About the Author Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List b iii iv v vii 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 75 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 143 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 187 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 237 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 313 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 403 404 405 
 
 
 
 
 Also by Mona Simpson
 Anywhere But Here
 The Lost Father
 A Regular Guy
 Off Keck Road
 My Hollywood
 Casebook
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This Is a Borzoi Book Published by Alfred A. Knopf
 Copyright © 2023 by Mona Simpson
 All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto.
 www.aaknopf.com
 Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Simpson, Mona, author.
 Title: Commitment / Mona Simpson.
 Description: First Edition. | New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2023.
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022023269 (print) | LCCN 2022023270 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593319277 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593319284 (ebook)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Novels.
 Classification: LCC PS3569.I5117 C66 2023 (print) | LCC PS3569.I5117 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022023269
 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022023270
 Ebook ISBN 9780593319284
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 Cover art: Day at the Beach (detail) by Lee Heinen © Lee Heinen. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images
 Cover design by Jenny Carrow
 ep_prh_6.0_142879849_c0_r0
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Also by Mona Simpson
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Epigraph
 
 
 Book 1: Walter Aziz, America
 
 
 Book 2: A Moral Treatment
 
 
 Book 3: A Building Somewhere in California
 
 
 Book 4: The Bouquets
 
 
 Book 5: Family Week
 
 
 Book 6: The Commons
 
 
 Acknowledgments
 A Note About the Author
 
 
 _142879849_
 
 
 
 FOR KEVIN THOMAS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Once there was a way to get back home.
 Paul McCartney, “Golden Slumbers”
 
 
 
 
 
 Book 1
 
 
 
 
 
 Walter Aziz, America
 
 
 
 1.
 Walter arranged for a ride up to Berkeley with a girl he barely knew. He promised to bring only his stereo, his albums, and one suitcase. She reminded him that he was moving for the whole rest of his life. He didn’t think so. He was already planning to return.
 He had to go to college; he understood that. All his life his mother had spoken of her nursing degree in a reverent tone, sometimes fingering the coin around her neck, proud to be the first person in her family to graduate. But he thought of himself as a slender pin that kept the machinery of his family ticking.
 The morning he was leaving forever, according to the girl, his family piled into the Chevrolet and his mom drove to her address. It belonged to a house with a wide, deep lawn in the Palisades, where a woman carried a picnic basket, followed by a compact man in slippers pushing a miniature refrigerator on a dolly. Two middle school boys—one on each side of an ice chest—stumbled out of the front door. The street was high above the ocean, but Walter could see the sharp-cut dark blue waves.
 A wood-paneled Ford Country Squire