Summary

G awakens besides the ocean. He throws the book he brought, The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms, across the room, wishing it was Proust. G hears an evocative phrase on the radio (“think of yourself as a jar” (35)), imagines it is sexual and contemplates the nature of sexuality. He recalls a recent unsuccessful intimate encounter with Sad under an overpass: “not enough juice for the squeeze as Sad so neatly put it” (35). He decides to go for a swim in a nearby pool to “see what they think of his rather majestic redwinged backstroke" (36).

Looking in the mirror in the changing room, G notices his aging face and realizes he has to get used to his mortality. G wonders if Daniil Kharms had similar thoughts and considers how brutal the man’s life was in Stalinist Russia, how much more intense his suffering was...