Summary

Chapter 21 – This chapter consists of entries “from the notebooks of Smiley, mathematician and botanist.” The first set of notes is presented as being a list of metric conversions taken from the Bible and, among other entries, includes this: “the death of Lazarus = a short nap.” The second set of notes is presented as being a list of conversions from “The Book of Incandescent Life” and includes these references: “a girl with stings on her arms = redemption," “a novel = the apology,” and “a phone call in which she says: I don’t want this book to ruin my life = It won’t, he says.”

Chapter 22 – This chapter consists of third person, paragraph-by-paragraph narrations about various characters.

Little Merced – Froggy finds Little Merced’s body: “there was no breath in her, only the smell of citrus” and “cold dabs of blood.” Narration describes how...