Henry (The Writer)

Henry is the novel’s central character and protagonist. His last name is eventually revealed to be L’Hote, which translates as “the host.” He is intelligent, well-read, imaginative, and seems to be somewhere on the spectrum between individualistic and quirky. His age is never explicitly defined, but there is the sense that he is in his mid-thirties or early forties. As the novel begins, he is married but with no children; is in the early stages of a successful career as a professional novelist; and is free enough of commitments that, when his second novel proves to be unpublishable, he is able to pack up his life and his wife and move.

The incident with the unpublished novel proves to be something of a trauma for him, as he finds himself unable (or unwilling) to write. Instead, he fills his time after he moves with...