Chapter Four, A Womb With a View Summary

The narrator dreams about the Coma Baby, a character from a New York Post story, and is awakened from his nightmare by a telephone call from Megan Avery, his co-worker, who does not want him to be late again. He dresses and leaves for work in a semi-awake state.

On the subway, he observes some Hasidic men, Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn, and contrasts the solidity of their worldview and religion with his own feelings of worthlessness and emptiness. There are also West Indian Rastafarian men traveling on the train. The narrator feels like he must be the only person in the public transport system that does not belong to an identifiable group.

Back at work, he enjoys light repartee with his colleagues and works during the morning verifying facts on a...