Chapters 20-21 Summary

Chapter 21 opens with Charles standing in a temple before various statues of Buddha. Near him is a pair of familiar-looking shoes. His mind, usually buzzing with worry, begins to calm. It occurs to him that desire is suffering and that, conversely, suffering is desire. Somewhere, a bell rings, a clarifying sound, and he sees his mother. He thinks about how she always would ask for love in an utterly unembarrassed way, but she was also jealous and had a temper. She is kneeling, and when she rises and turns, he sees it is not his mother, but what he calls "The Woman My Mother Should Have Been." She doesn't recognize him. He realizes that the shoes he had seen belong to his father. The room begins to feel like it is spinning. He asks the woman if his father is here...