Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary

Michael spends a week remembering the way Hanna moved and looked and then returns to her apartment. He realizes that ordinarily he would not find her attractive, but given the circumstances he finds her a highly sexually attractive woman though she is twice his age. Michael, as narrator, then ponders about the nature of self-determination and the will. He contemplates the reasoning he used to motivate himself to return to the apartment.

Part 1, Chapter 5 Analysis

Chapter 5, like earlier chapters, is a mix of narrative events from 1954, with narrative introspection about the events from the distance of three decades. The dominant theme of the chapter is an explanation of why Michael decided to return to Hanna's apartment. The narrative conclusions are somewhat vague, however. The narrator explains several optional rationales, but then concludes that something else, unexplained and beyond understanding, was the...