Robert Stevens

Ch. 8 basically reveals how much of a fraud Marana truly is, although he attempts to make himself appear legitamite. It turns out Flannery has met Lortaria, Ludmilla, and the Reader at different points in the story. The latter 3 of the 4 eventually end up in Ataguitania, a South American nation with a serious legitamicy problem. Apparently a Revolutionary movement and a Counterrevolutionary movement have become so cross infiltrated it is nearly impossible to discern who is on what side. In the process many stories have been banned, falsified, reprinted, etc. all in the name of whatever cause you can think of. Eventually they wind up in Ircania (most likely a Slavic nation), Ataguitania's polar opposite, where still more antics occur. Eventually the story moves on to a circle of readers commenting in a library about stories that have no beginning and no end, and a discussion of the stories laid out in this book. The Reader then ends up married to Ludmilla and they proceed to read "If on a Winter's Night, a Traveler" by Italo Calvino.

The stories in this section cover a wide variety. From a story about a Japanese academic that ends up sleeping with his mentor's wife, to a young man in the Southwest who searches desperately for his mother after his father dies, to a man who can seemingly make the world disappear, except for the mysterious Section D. None of the stories follow any tag line, as is true with all the rest.

This novel has basically gone in a circle backwards. It began where it should have ended and it ended where it should have began. How confusing!