Part 1, Chapters 1, 2 and 3 Summary

"The Sun is Your Enemy"

As he watches the sunrise with his friends Claire and Dag, narrator Andy comments on his memories of traveling to a small town to watch a total eclipse of the sun (see "Quotes," p. 3-4). Employing his idiosyncratic vocabulary (see "Style - Language and Meaning"), he then describes the difficulties that brought the acerbic Claire and self-absorbed Dag to his home that night. As the sun rises, Dag demands that the three friends comment on what the sunrise makes them think about. In narration, Andy describes how Claire refers at detailed length to the sun ruining the life of a hard-working Russian farmer, and Dag refers at equally detailed length about the sun giving cancer to a beautiful Australian surfer. Andy then portrays himself as saying one thing (referring to the sun as drying...