You cannot be without contact with anything. You must promise me that you will not go on living as you were when I found you.
-- Larry Hollis (chapter 1)

Importance: As one of his dying wishes, Larry Hollis asks Zuckerman to give up his life of isolation and to reenter society, for his own health and happiness. This wish, along with the existential shock of Larry's death and Larry's personally fulfilling life, Zuckerman returns to New York City in the hopes of renewing his own chances a personal fulfillment.

I’d been more than susceptible to my own obsessive brand [of fear] during the Vietnam years...
-- Zuckerman (Narration) (chapter 1)

Importance: In this line of narration, Zuckerman contemplates the political tensions of 2004 and compares them to the similar political tensions of his own generation. These parallels serve to emphasize the seemingly perpetual nature of sociopolitical conflict across generations, and this conflict adds a further sense of anxiety and urgency to...