How would you interpret this sentence?
She has raised the subject of the memoir yet again. I thought it had died a natural death, but no, she presses. If only to put to rest the perforated eardrum question, I suspect. The first chapter was very good in her opinion, and today she confessed that since the day I gave it to her, she comes to work each morning hoping I’ll have the next part of it ready for her to type.

How would you interpret this sentence: If only to put to rest the perforated eardrum question?
PS: ‘she’ was the typist of the narrator who was a novelist. And the newspaper said the novelist had a perforated eardrum which was not true.
Thanks!

Question

How would you interpret this sentence?
She has raised the subject of the memoir yet again. I thought it had died a natural death, but no, she presses. If only to put to rest the perforated eardrum question, I suspect. The first chapter was very good in her opinion, and today she confessed that since the day I gave it to her, she comes to work each morning hoping I’ll have the next part of it ready for her to type.

How would you interpret this sentence: If only to put to rest the perforated eardrum question?
PS: ‘she’ was the typist of the narrator who was a novelist. And the newspaper said the novelist had a perforated eardrum which was not true.
Thanks!

Answer

It sounds as if she wants him to write his memoir in order to refute the story about the perforated eardrum.

Answer

That sentence is not, in fact, a full sentence. It is called a "fragment", often used in literature for dramatic effect. The full sentence would read:

"She presses the subject of the memoir, if only to put to rest the perforated eardrum question."

The "perforated eardrum question" will be, indeed, an unfinished story about somebody's eardrum being perforated. As Randy said, if such a story is "put to rest", then it is concluded, no more questions are left to be asked.

Answer

If one "puts to rest" an issue, then it means the issue is dead.