Chapter 17 Summary

"The Dance of Life and Death"

Solomon tells Tully that there's not a dull day on the Lucretia and that she "kept a constant flow of scientists, students, and crackpots on board" (pg. 167). Clearly, Tully fits into the later category.

At dinner, Tully is offered carrot sticks, which make him nervous after his choking spell earlier in the book. They all sit down to dinner and listen to tango music by Carlos Gardel. The song that they are listening to - Tomo y Obligo - is the last song Gardel sang before being killed in a plane crash.

Cleopatra is obsessed with Cuban baseball and a young pitcher called El Cohete - "The Rocket." She tells of how baseball came to Cuba from the U.S. following the Civil War as a rebel game. Since it was a denouncement of bullfighting, the Spanish...