Summary

The entirety of Chapter 43 is an apology letter addressed to Russell. The writer, it is not immediately clear who, tells Russell he is at Silver Meadows, which is implied to be a rehab facility as the writer mentions step nine of the 12-step program. The writer then goes on to explain the failure of his third book as an attempt at journalism gone awry.

The letter details the writer’s struggles to land a job in the Middle East covering the war. He goes on to explain that he ended up in Lahore, in Pakistan, for a friend’s wedding. While attending the wedding the writer went on a drug bender and holed up in an apartment for four weeks with an English girl after discovering opium.

Briskin reported the writer missing, and it now becomes abundantly clear that the author of the...