Part V, Chapters 34-35 Summary and Analysis

Part V begins with Chapter 34, and is called "The Shimmering Girl." Louis returned home, but had difficulty adjusting to normal life again. As a famous runner who survived the Japanese camps, he was in high demand for speaking engagements and public appearances. All the while he was troubled by nightmares in which the Bird appeared, beating him.

While in Florida, Louis met a woman named Cynthia Applewhite, the "shimmering girl" of the chapter title. After a two-week romance, he asked her to marry him and she agreed. Her parents were shocked and asked her to wait, but on a visit to Louis in California the two of them were hurriedly married.

Meanwhile in Japan, Watanabe had been placed on a list of war criminals sought by the Japanese police to be prosecuted. He managed to...