Summary

In Part Two, Greene once again opens with a direct address to Greta, recalling a moment when she is nine months old. Jayson takes Greta to play at a local playground, and from there to Susan’s apartment on the Upper West Side. At the playground, he monitors her for all the things fathers of young children watch for: her safety, her tiredness, her hunger. His flashback ends as he arrives with her after the subway ride and walk to Susan’s apartment, before New York itself was transformed by the accident into a malevolent threat.

Jayson, Stacy, and their group are disbanding in the hospital parking lot, after Greta has been wheeled away for her final surgical procedures. Susan goes straight back to her apartment, eschewing further group contact, which Jayson finds unwise. He and Stacy, instead, go with...