Summary

Part II of the novel starts with Chapter 34, which takes the reader back to Chelsea in 1990. Henry reminisces about how his parents used to enjoy Christmas. Henry, Sr., would dress up as Father Christmas and try to fool the kids. Henry claims he both knew and did not know that was his father. He then likens it to how people saw David as both merely a man and as "the answer to all their problems" (177). On Christmas Eve in 1990, Henry, Sr., did not dress up as Father Christmas. That night, he had a stroke. Dr. Broughton came to check him out but left as soon as he found out Henry, Sr., no longer had private health care coverage. Instead, Henry, Sr., was loaded onto an ambulance, taken to the hospital, and released on Boxing Day. He never truly recovered, and David usurped more...