Chapter 7-9 Summary

At this point in the book, the narrator recalls the events in his life that led him to Germany. He was born in Schenectady, New York in 1912. His father was an engineer and his job often had him away from the house. The narrator was an only child and was very close to his mother, who was a housewife and amateur cellist. He describes his mother as a beautiful, talented, and morbid person who was drunk most of the time.

When the narrator was 11, his father got a transfer to work in Germany. From then on, the narrator's life began as a German. He became fluent in the language and had many German friends. He became a playwright and married a German actress named Helga Noth.

The narrator's father and mother left Germany when the war broke out in 1939. The narrator...