Summary

Chapter 7 opens with Claudia’s description of Cairo as a place where the terms “past” and “present” have no meaning. Cairo is a place, she says, where the archaeology and the architecture blend seamlessly and where the landscape is decidedly cyclical, rather than linear, in its rhythms. After these reflections, the chapter turns to Claudia’s second trip to Cairo, in her old age. Claudia tells of meeting an American tourist who mistakes her for the same and takes up her company for a trip down the Nile. The two form an incongruous pair but keep easy company. In the process of describing their trip through the desert, Claudia transitions to her memories of a different trip through the desert: the trip in which she met Tom.

Claudia first encounters Tom during a trip through the desert with a small group of press correspondents. After the...