Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary

The hospital leaders tell Manna to get ready to meet Commissar Wei and grant her leave to meet him at the hospital's hotel in Muji City. She is taken to the hospital by jeep and told to meet Wei in his suite. The commissar is a tall man in his fifties, gentle, intellectual, and very polite. Manna wonders why he and his wife divorced, since he seems well mannered and considerate. He asks her about books, and if she reads, and if so, what. She says she has not read for some time, but used to read fiction, and mentions several novels, then worries that they may be considered politically incorrect. Wei, however, approves of her taste and shows her a copy of Leaves of Grass, a book of poetry by Walt Whitman, which he loves. He lends her a copy...