Gilbert Silvester

Gilbert is the novel's protagonist, and the third-person omniscient narrator focuses primarily on his point-of-view. He is a middle-aged German man, a professor and academic whose area of study is the cultural and religious symbolism of the beard. When the novel begins, Gilbert has just woken from a dream about his wife, Mathilda, being unfaithful to him. Believing the dream to be true, he quarrels with Mathilda and then storms off to the airport, where he impulsively boards a plane to Tokyo. As the novel continues, the reader learns that Gilbert is dissatisfied with many aspects of his life. Not only is he insecure about his marriage, but he feels his career is going nowhere, and he has been surpassed by less intelligent colleagues who were more charismatic or simply better at making professional connections. Upon arrival in Japan, Gilbert purchases the travelogue written by 17th century...