Summary

The perspective, beginning in Chapter 12, shifts from that of the character of the narrator for the first time. A limited third person narrator reveals the thoughts and impressions of the writer M himself, in a new book of the novel entitled "Why Do You Write?" (85). M's story begins with the encounter with the café waitress previously recorded by that narrator of the earlier chapters. While struggling with the waitress in his attempt to get a cup of coffee, M notes that fewer and fewer people recognize him.

He is reassured by a passing middle-aged couple who gawk and nudge each other in a satisfactory manner. Passing the bookstore where he gave a signing a few days before, M notes his book cover photo for the way in which it does not pretend at a perpetual youth that so many other aging authors (including...