Book I, The Way Station Summary
Toronto is an active, albeit derelict, port, full of nostalgic migrants. Athos and Jakob head north Union Station to the Heathside Gardens apartments, which seem luxurious after Zakynthos. Disoriented by everything, Jakob finds it hard to sleep and despairs. Athos sleeps little as he prepares lectures by night. Jakob attends English and Greek classes and does the shopping; Athos cooks for relaxation. Athos helps Jakob with the subtleties of English and wishes he could relieve him of his nightmares. How Nazis could have done what they did with straight faces is beyond Jakob. He tries to bury the images, but family and friends emerge from his mind at night. Later, he will study the details of the Holocaust. Athos teaches Jakob to cook Greek dishes. Jakob does not stray far when food shopping. One day he misunderstands a grocer's thick accent and never returns, despite Athos's explanation. Jakob ponders how it takes years to straighten out sounds and gain vocabulary.
Athos and Jakob gather fellow strays, none of whom work in their former professions, and from them Jakob learns many useful things. Athos and Jakob take little part in the Greek community but frequent Constantine's restaurants. Athos writes his book, sensing that he is running out of time, and Jakob studies the city rather than making friends. On Sunday walks through Toronto's ravines, Athos points out 150 million years of prehistory. In the first thunderstorm of spring, Jakob sees boys blowing on grass to produce loud squawks. Athos and Jakob make up characters and stories to help Jakob with his English. Jakob is proud of terrible puns and sees differences between Old and New World objects. He later finds that writing about his childhood in English protects him. Toronto's Greek and Jewish neighborhoods lie side-by-side, which comforts Jakob. Hearing the old tongue brings fear and love; he wonders how survivors of the camps feel, surrounded by so much food.
Jakob learns how glaciers transform Toronto's rivers and forests and reads about Canadian history. They both correspond with Kostas and Daphne, Jakob reporting on school and food, Athos writing about Greek politics. Athos often falls depressed while working on Bearing False Witness, a tribute to comrades lost at Biskupin, documenting the Nazi abuse of archeology. Biskupin and other historical events inflame Athos's temper and Jakob chokes on the smoke from his images. Jakob dreams about the Nazis invading his home and wonders what they think about Bella's magnificent hair as they cut it. Athos stops eating as he labors late nights.
On one of their last walks together, Athos and Jakob discuss religion. Jakob maintains that the Truth does not care what one thinks of it. Athos's father had not known if there is a God, because God constantly disappears. Beautiful Government House in Chorley Park, which Athos and Jacob often visit, disappears. Tiring, Athos waves off Jakob's concerns and refuses to slow. Jakob enrolls in the university, studying literature, history, and geography, and begins translating banned Greek poets. It is a task filled with mystery. Walking one summer evening, Jakob hears overhead melodies that his mother always sang while brushing Bella's hair and he joins in, a foreign song that surprises porch-sitters. Jakob's spirit-shape grows familiar.
Unable to sleep, Jakob imagines kissing a skinny girl from the library, but she wonders why he keeps to himself, collects articles about the war, and studies faces in photographs. Jakob and Athos both suffer from having spent the war in ignorance on Zakynthos. Only silence can store Jakob's life. Feeling Bella inch away, Jakob thinks that writing poetry slightly askew might restore order. He writes about Biskupin and Zakynthos but achieves only shrieking. Through Athos, Jakob makes one lasting friend at the university, Maurice Salman. The three go to movies and argue about which actress to adore, until Athos dies. He returns home from lecturing on conserving Egyptian wood, sits at his table, and is dead in the morning. Jakob knows the outlines and many details of Athos's life but wonders about whom and how he had loved. Athos's last breath obscures the the view of his life.
Weighted down by self-pity, Jakob sits in Athos's chaotic study, looking at mementos and reading with embarrassment a packet of letters from Athos to Helen while both were studying in Vienna. From the letters, he understands why Athos has continued searching for Bella. For Athos, hope and expectation are separate and love is always good. To Kostas and Daphne, Jakob promises to bring Athos' ashes home to where he will be remembered. Jakob dips at random into Athos's diverse interests in nature, particularly peat and salt, and appreciates how Athos views social forces in terms of geology.
Having planned to help Athos organize his files on Nazi archeology, Jakob spends three years searching for the "why." He feels Athos' presence in the flat as he works alone. Jakob also translates part-time and occasionally has dinner with Maurice and his bride Irene. They talk about the book, which Jakob dedicates to Athos's dead colleagues. Jakob performs the rite of pouring fresh water into the sea for the dead to drink and recalls how Eskimo hunters offer fresh water to the seals that they hunt. He realizes that to honor Athos and Bella he must resolve a perpetual thirst.
Book I, The Way Station Analysis
The fourth chapter depicts the brief time that Athos and Jakob spend together in Toronto. Much space is given to description of the city, as it is after World War II and as it had been in historical, pre-historical, and geologic time. The pair spend Sundays hiking, and the ravines of Toronto offer Athos many teaching opportunities. Jakob is disoriented by the busy, crowded city and particularly by the sensual nature of advertising. He recalls several incidents that become funny in hindsight but are frightening at the time to a boy whose English is weak. Athos shuns the large organized Greek community to spend time writing. Jakob offers some telling recollections about displaced fellow immigrants, including Greeks and Jews, whose neighborhoods lie next to one another. Hearing Yiddish and Hebrew brings mixed feelings because of Jakob's unresolved survivor's guilt. Jakob's earliest efforts to write autobiographical poetry are a failure.
Jakob talks about mastering English with Athos's help and gradually beginning to translate for a living. Jacob develops a taste for puns and malapropisms (twists on words) and reproduces a number of humorous examples. He discusses Hayim Nahman Bialik's views on the impossibility of adequately translating poetry and applies them especially to Greek, which he has already shown operates on two literary levels in the mid-twentieth century. Jakob continues to suffer nightmares about the Nazi evil, and in a rather lyrical passage, he considers how they could have done what they did with straight faces. He later comes to understand the psychology that allows them to function, but at this point he is puzzled, rather childishly expecting people's faces to reveal their true inner nature.
Jakob makes one lasting friend at the university, Maurice Salman, who soon marries. His wife becomes for Jakob a symbol of womanhood. He also falls for a skinny girl that he meets in the university library who finds him odd with his preference for collecting articles about the war over learning how to dance. Jakob's love life will come into focus later in the novel and be shown initially to falter.
Athos dies before he can finish Bearing False Witness, so Jakob completes it for him, working late nights and alone, as Athos had. Jakob recognizes in himself self-pity as he sifts through mementos, which he describes in abundance, helping to characterize his late mentor. He is embarrassed to read Athos's fifty-year-old letters to Helen and look at her lone photograph. Finishing the book takes three years, which telescope to a single sentence. The chapter ends with Jakob performing the rite of pouring fresh water into the sea for the dead to drink, which Athos had taught him in Zakynthos, and he couples this, in Athos's fashion, with Eskimo hunting rituals. Athos has taught him syncretism. The image shifts to Jakob realizing that to honor Athos - and Bella, whose memory has inched away a bit but continues to haunt him - he must resolve a perpetual thirst.
Toronto is an active, albeit derelict, port, full of nostalgic migrants. Athos and Jakob head north Union Station to the Heathside Gardens apartments, which seem luxurious after Zakynthos. Disoriented by everything, Jakob finds it hard to sleep and despairs. Athos sleeps little as he prepares lectures by night. Jakob attends English and Greek classes and does the shopping; Athos cooks for relaxation. Athos helps Jakob with the subtleties of English and wishes he could relieve him of his nightmares. How Nazis could have done what they did with straight faces is beyond Jakob. He tries to bury the images, but family and friends emerge from his mind at night. Later, he will study the details of the Holocaust. Athos teaches Jakob to cook Greek dishes. Jakob does not stray far when food shopping. One day he misunderstands a grocer's thick accent and never returns, despite Athos's explanation. Jakob ponders how it takes years to straighten out sounds and gain vocabulary.
Athos and Jakob gather fellow strays, none of whom work in their former professions, and from them Jakob learns many useful things. Athos and Jakob take little part in the Greek community but frequent Constantine's restaurants. Athos writes his book, sensing that he is running out of time, and Jakob studies the city rather than making friends. On Sunday walks through Toronto's ravines, Athos points out 150 million years of prehistory. In the first thunderstorm of spring, Jakob sees boys blowing on grass to produce loud squawks. Athos and Jakob make up characters and stories to help Jakob with his English. Jakob is proud of terrible puns and sees differences between Old and New World objects. He later finds that writing about his childhood in English protects him. Toronto's Greek and Jewish neighborhoods lie side-by-side, which comforts Jakob. Hearing the old tongue brings fear and love; he wonders how survivors of the camps feel, surrounded by so much food.
Jakob learns how glaciers transform Toronto's rivers and forests and reads about Canadian history. They both correspond with Kostas and Daphne, Jakob reporting on school and food, Athos writing about Greek politics. Athos often falls depressed while working on Bearing False Witness, a tribute to comrades lost at Biskupin, documenting the Nazi abuse of archeology. Biskupin and other historical events inflame Athos's temper and Jakob chokes on the smoke from his images. Jakob dreams about the Nazis invading his home and wonders what they think about Bella's magnificent hair as they cut it. Athos stops eating as he labors late nights.
On one of their last walks together, Athos and Jakob discuss religion. Jakob maintains that the Truth does not care what one thinks of it. Athos's father had not known if there is a God, because God constantly disappears. Beautiful Government House in Chorley Park, which Athos and Jacob often visit, disappears. Tiring, Athos waves off Jakob's concerns and refuses to slow. Jakob enrolls in the university, studying literature, history, and geography, and begins translating banned Greek poets. It is a task filled with mystery. Walking one summer evening, Jakob hears overhead melodies that his mother always sang while brushing Bella's hair and he joins in, a foreign song that surprises porch-sitters. Jakob's spirit-shape grows familiar.
Unable to sleep, Jakob imagines kissing a skinny girl from the library, but she wonders why he keeps to himself, collects articles about the war, and studies faces in photographs. Jakob and Athos both suffer from having spent the war in ignorance on Zakynthos. Only silence can store Jakob's life. Feeling Bella inch away, Jakob thinks that writing poetry slightly askew might restore order. He writes about Biskupin and Zakynthos but achieves only shrieking. Through Athos, Jakob makes one lasting friend at the university, Maurice Salman. The three go to movies and argue about which actress to adore, until Athos dies. He returns home from lecturing on conserving Egyptian wood, sits at his table, and is dead in the morning. Jakob knows the outlines and many details of Athos's life but wonders about whom and how he had loved. Athos's last breath obscures the the view of his life.
Weighted down by self-pity, Jakob sits in Athos's chaotic study, looking at mementos and reading with embarrassment a packet of letters from Athos to Helen while both were studying in Vienna. From the letters, he understands why Athos has continued searching for Bella. For Athos, hope and expectation are separate and love is always good. To Kostas and Daphne, Jakob promises to bring Athos' ashes home to where he will be remembered. Jakob dips at random into Athos's diverse interests in nature, particularly peat and salt, and appreciates how Athos views social forces in terms of geology.
Having planned to help Athos organize his files on Nazi archeology, Jakob spends three years searching for the "why." He feels Athos' presence in the flat as he works alone. Jakob also translates part-time and occasionally has dinner with Maurice and his bride Irene. They talk about the book, which Jakob dedicates to Athos's dead colleagues. Jakob performs the rite of pouring fresh water into the sea for the dead to drink and recalls how Eskimo hunters offer fresh water to the seals that they hunt. He realizes that to honor Athos and Bella he must resolve a perpetual thirst.
Book I, The Way Station Analysis
The fourth chapter depicts the brief time that Athos and Jakob spend together in Toronto. Much space is given to description of the city, as it is after World War II and as it had been in historical, pre-historical, and geologic time. The pair spend Sundays hiking, and the ravines of Toronto offer Athos many teaching opportunities. Jakob is disoriented by the busy, crowded city and particularly by the sensual nature of advertising. He recalls several incidents that become funny in hindsight but are frightening at the time to a boy whose English is weak. Athos shuns the large organized Greek community to spend time writing. Jakob offers some telling recollections about displaced fellow immigrants, including Greeks and Jews, whose neighborhoods lie next to one another. Hearing Yiddish and Hebrew brings mixed feelings because of Jakob's unresolved survivor's guilt. Jakob's earliest efforts to write autobiographical poetry are a failure.
Jakob talks about mastering English with Athos's help and gradually beginning to translate for a living. Jacob develops a taste for puns and malapropisms (twists on words) and reproduces a number of humorous examples. He discusses Hayim Nahman Bialik's views on the impossibility of adequately translating poetry and applies them especially to Greek, which he has already shown operates on two literary levels in the mid-twentieth century. Jakob continues to suffer nightmares about the Nazi evil, and in a rather lyrical passage, he considers how they could have done what they did with straight faces. He later comes to understand the psychology that allows them to function, but at this point he is puzzled, rather childishly expecting people's faces to reveal their true inner nature.
Jakob makes one lasting friend at the university, Maurice Salman, who soon marries. His wife becomes for Jakob a symbol of womanhood. He also falls for a skinny girl that he meets in the university library who finds him odd with his preference for collecting articles about the war over learning how to dance. Jakob's love life will come into focus later in the novel and be shown initially to falter.
Athos dies before he can finish Bearing False Witness, so Jakob completes it for him, working late nights and alone, as Athos had. Jakob recognizes in himself self-pity as he sifts through mementos, which he describes in abundance, helping to characterize his late mentor. He is embarrassed to read Athos's fifty-year-old letters to Helen and look at her lone photograph. Finishing the book takes three years, which telescope to a single sentence. The chapter ends with Jakob performing the rite of pouring fresh water into the sea for the dead to drink, which Athos had taught him in Zakynthos, and he couples this, in Athos's fashion, with Eskimo hunting rituals. Athos has taught him syncretism. The image shifts to Jakob realizing that to honor Athos - and Bella, whose memory has inched away a bit but continues to haunt him - he must resolve a perpetual thirst.
syn·cre·tism
1. the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.
2.
Grammar . the merging, as by historical change in a language, of two or more categories in a specified environment into one, as, in nonstandard English, the use of was with both singular and plural subjects, while in standard English was is used with singular subjects (except for you in the second person singular) and were with plural subjects.
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