Maybe at some point in this memoir the author gets around to building up the personalities of the neighbors that she grew up with, but this preview seems to be nothing more than griping about how her parents don't like each other or want to parents to her. That and an attempt to avoid sounding pretentious about an early career in opera by denigrating the people and experiences backstage and during rehearsal that ends up coming off as pretentious anyway. The preview was a slog that didn't engage me; I struggle to see the whole book doing so.