A Spy Novel Inside A Family Drama

Pages Read: 318

Pages To Go: 660

Footnotes: 119 of 388

I must admit I’m really curious how this is all going to tie together. What this interlude featuring a second rate American agent and a wheelchair-bound assassin for the Quebecois separatist movement has to do with the Incandenzas.

Clues include the fact this meeting is taking place in the desert of the American Southwest, where Hal will someday be applying for university; Hal and Orin’s recent conversation on their views of the separatist movement; Hal’s meeting with the creepy therapist somehow being connected to this movement as well. But we haven’t gotten any concrete connection yet.

Of course, I’m also beginning to believe this entire novel is just an excuse for DFW to work all of his favorite vocabulary words into a single work.

Vocab Word: Lume a short term for the luminous phosphorescent glowing solution applied on watch dials.