Section 15 Summary

This section begins with the sentence, "Getting back from the Other World isn't the half of it."

Bardamu returns to France, finishes his medical studies and opens his office in a dreary suburb, Garenne-Rancy (loose translation: rancid rabbit-pen). Rancy is yet another impoverished place where masses of unkempt, uninspired people daily crush themselves into the streetcars ("long electric sewers") for fear of losing their mundane jobs. Bardamu studies the people with all the more interest now that he is a doctor. Studying has given him both pride in himself and a sharper eye for understanding people. Bardamu feels "closer to people, animals everything" and prepares himself to "plunge straight into the heart of things." Yet, patients only slowly trickle into his new practice, in spite of the fact that he is the cheapest doctor in town. Often, he even treats people simply out...