Summary

Chapter 34 begins a new book of the novel entitled “The Book’s the Thing” (257). Picking up in the present day and again from the narrator (Herman)’s perspective, the audience is placed in the middle of a conversation between Herman and M. M has accosted Herman in the act of depositing his trash, and says that he wants to thank Herman.

Herman considers pretending that he doesn’t know what M has to thank him for, but instead protests and claims that it “was nothing” (260). The two men watch the café across the street (now going out of business) being dismantled by movers. M refers to the request that Herman had made to him “last week...At the library” (260). He agrees to give Herman an interview for a “part of a series” that Herman is pretending to write (260). The two men agree on...