Chapter 28-29 Summary

In Chapter 28, Oleg is able to find Lev in a private room and asks him if the hormone therapy will keep him from ever having sex with a woman again. Lev says he does not think so, but adds that women keep a man from accomplishing something serious in his life. At that moment Angelica, one of the ineffective doctors, comes in and talks to Lev as if Oleg is not there. Oleg brings the conversation back to him by asking Lev about the birch tree fungus. Lev says it is all the rage in Moscow. In the conversation between the two men, after Angelica leaves, Oleg learns that Lev had been in a prison camp once as well. Oleg runs into Vera on his way to see Dyomka, and they have a hopeful conversation. Dyomka greets Oleg like a brother...