Chapter 3 Summary

The Luczaks arrive at midnight, are jostled in the noisy, filthy terminal, and are picked up not by M. L. Chatterjee of the Bengali Writers' Union, but by M. T. Krishna, who claims to have been sent by Abe's old friend. As they careen by bus through the clogged, flooded streets to the hotel, Bobby grows irate, but Amrita restrains him. He ignores Krishna's requests to talk about Das. Their room is relatively clean and they are asleep within minutes.

Chapter 3 Analysis

Chapter 3 describes the Luczaks' arrival in Calcutta and first impressions. Bobby is struck by the lights everywhere and imagines that bomber crews during World War II would have perceived London or Berlin in much the same way. This heightens the ominous feeling the Calcutta has already gotten. He notes a "fungal phosphorescence" (pg. 21) oozing from countless sources that he will later...