Chapters 19-21 Summary

Bogus compares his experience with Biggie after they have split up to a situation in the poem he is translating for his thesis. In the poem, the hero wants to take his six-year-old son to war with him, which the child's mother protests saying that the boy is too young. She admits she is worried that her son will see his father with some whore and thus lower his opinion of his own mother. The hero ends up leaving the boy at home with his mother. In Bogus's situation, however, Colm is allowed to come visit Bogus and Tulpen in New York, despite Biggie's worries. Before putting five-year-old Colm on a plane, Biggie asks Bogus not to behave lewdly with Tulpen in front of the child. Bogus points out that now Couth is living with Biggie and Colm.

Bogus and Tulpen...