Chapters 15 through 21 Summary

In Chapter 15, Claude Sylvanshine is presented as having a special supernatural ability—he is a so-called fact psychic; random facts simply pop into his mind. Whether these facts are correct or imagined is not fully developed in the novel though several of the facts appear to be correct and also unknowable by normal means. Sometimes these facts are applicable to the person Sylvanshine is talking to; sometimes they are applicable to the area or process Sylvanshine is investigating; usually they are simply random facts about whatever. Within the narrative, Sylvanshine's ability is accepted as real. In Chapter 16, Lane Dean Jr. and two other examiners stand outside of the IRS REC on a lunch break. The two other examiners obviously are old co-workers and they gossip about various people unknown to Dean. Dean feels excluded, wonders if he's being deliberately excluded...