Chapter 22 Summary

The quite lengthy chapter 22 reads as an autobiography, though of course it is fictional or perhaps meta-fictional. The narrator is David Wallace, again the character as narrator asserting himself as author, as in Chapter 9. The chapter begins with a sprawling and lengthy look at 1970s and 1980s popular culture in the United States. Wallace's father was a Certified Public Accountant, or CPA, and thus Wallace grew up with at least a fair amount of tax and financial knowledge circulating in his home. Wallace grew up as a self-labeled "wastoid" (p. 154). This term encapsulates some frequent illicit drug use but goes well beyond simply using drugs—instead, it is meant to encompass the basic lack of any motivation or desire for constructive behavior. Wallace uses whatever illegal drugs are available and appealing but has a strong preference for a prescription drug called Obetrol...