December, 1961

The earliest scene of the novel is 1961. It takes place during a Scrabble at an unnamed location. This scene is significant, because it provides insight into Kingsley’s anti-semitism, which emerges when he spells the word “yid” during a game with Martin and Theo, who is a Jew.

London, 1967

1967 is the year of Martin’s affair with Rachel, his first love. The scene takes place in a nondescript bedroom the day before the Six Day War in Israel. This war is significant, because Rachel is a Zionist who donates blood regularly to Israel. It is through Rachel that Martin comes to become “a Zionist sympathizer and…a Jew-lover” (20). Martin’s love affair with Rachel and Jewish sympathies provide a basis for Martin’s later relationship with Saul Bellow as well fodder for Martin’s first book, The Rachel Papers.

Hotel room, Greece, November, 1973

In a hotel room in...