Summary

In “Build,” “The Affinity Charm,” 1, while his wife Lizzie lay in bed breastfeeding their son Gregory, Bix told her he longed to talk. He had no one to “talk with in that casual, wide-open studenty way” they once had in college (4). None of his colleagues at his company, Mandala, conversed that way.

Bix took a walk in the city. It “felt new” to be anonymous (5). Since Mandala’s success, everyone knew him. He wondered about his marriage and how his work had dictated his life. The only person he talked to was Lizzie’s mother. “On his way to the subway,” he saw a flier advertising, “an on-campus lecture to be given by Miranda Kline, the anthropologist” (7). Her book, Patterns of Affinity, fascinated Bix. He considered attending the talk following the lecture in three...