Summary

Chapter 8 - The penultimate chapter in the book is a departure in style from those preceding it and the one following it. It opens with a fairly neutral account of how Julia came to meet the Minna brothers, first Gerard, and then Frank. She is described as having been raised with Alan Watts lectures on tape which inform her youth, but leave her unsatisfied, disconnected with the world. She comes to live in a Zen retreat center in Maine where she eventually meets the two Minna brothers. While Gerard’s manner of speaking resembles that of the Buddhist Watts, Frank lives a life of bustling immediacy as defined by the activities of Brooklyn hoods. She and Gerard become lovers for a time, but later, as Gerard becomes more involved in his meditation, they pull apart. Frank’s greater immediacy becomes attractive to her, and they...