Speedboat by Renata Adler

"We may win this year. We may lose it all. It is not going as well as we thought. Posterity, anyway, does not know everything. The simplest operations of life - voting in booths, filling out returns, remembering whether or not one has just taken a pill - are very difficult. Jim leads an exemplary life and I can't cook. As is clear from the parking regulations, however, there are situations in which you are not entitled to stop."