Summary

Chapter 19, which begins a new book of the novel titled “Life After Death,” begins with the words, “She wasn’t attracted to him right away” (139). Through a limited third person narrator, the reader is planted into the mind of Laura Domenech during the events of the year later fictionalized in M’s novel Payback. She recalls her friend David Bierman mentioning that he had invited a boy to a party that Laura was attending: “He might,” David hinted, “be someone for you” (139).

He mentioned that this was a type of person whom one either hated or loved at first meeting. Laura met the boy a few days later at David’s party, and noted how thin he was and how eccentrically dressed: a too-tight t-shirt and pair of green half-wellingtons turned down at the top. Later, he approached her at the refreshment table...