Chapters 3, 4 and 5 Summary and Analysis

"Limbo" This chapter opens with a brief quote from the Biblical Book of Job, referring to "the shadow of death" and to being in a place "where the light is as darkness".

In this brief chapter, the author describes how he felt a dark, empty despair and disappointment after the unsatisfactory visit from Mr. Swan, and stayed in the "abyss" of that despair for three days. Eventually, he writes, he came to perceive the "abyss" as a source of patience and healing, of transcendent insight into the mysteries of life and of death. During this period, he adds, he came to better understand these mysteries through reading the Bible which, he asserts, is practically all about the dualities of light and dark, of despair and hope, of fear and triumph.

"Quickening" This chapter begins with a quote from a...