Chapter 8 Summary

Swede feels as though he is in a "coffin carved out of time from which he would never be extricated". He is in shock and needs to get through this dinner party. The Salzmans, who hid Merry after the first bombing, had never told him or called him. The Umanoffs had let Merry stay with them in New York before the bombing. Shevitz, an attorney friend who helped them after the bombing, and his militant non-conformist wife Marcia, an unlikely match, are present. Dawn hates Marcia for sending Merry underground, but the truth is that Sheila Salzman was the one who helped Merry become herself, and also the one with whom Swede had an affair for four months after the bombing. Sheila Salzman's husband, Dr. Salzman, counseled the Levovs about Dawn's facelift, and Swede wanted to but could never tell him about the...