Part 1, Section 8, "Rodrigo Pola" Summary

Part One of the novel is taken up largely with setting the stage and exploring the lives of three major characters: Robles, Norma his wife, and Pola. This final section of Part One returns to the dialogue between Pola and Ixca as if it has been going on all this time. The conversation continues exactly where it left off previously (30 pages earlier), as they resume their discussion of Pola's childhood and family.

Rodrigo tells of the difficulty he had growing up without a father, always wondering what that heroic man was really like and if he, R, could live up to his name. As a child he lived alone with his mother, who was always exhausted from working two jobs to support them. Her opinion of his father is low: she resents him for deserting...