Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary

Once he has mostly recovered from his illness, Michael returns to the building to find and thank the woman who proffered assistance. Michael will remember the building in great detail throughout the remainder of his life, and he recounts numerous small details about the building and area. Michael will frequently dream about the building, and dream about visiting the building, during the later years of his life.

Part 1, Chapter 2 Analysis

This brief chapter helps set the tone and texture of Part 1 of the novel. Most of the details provided about the physical building and neighborhood are largely insignificant to the remainder of the novel. Plus, they seem out of place, as they are presented in such detail. Michael's future dreams about the building are likewise not particularly relevant to the remainder of the novel except as providing strong foreshadowing that the...