Summary
The twelfth chapter is written as a series of email and online messenger exchanges, all surrounding Lulu. It makes a number of references to characters and events from Egan's 2010 novel A Visit from the Good Squad. The chapter begins with Lulu's husband Joe, a security system designer employed by the NSA, describing his concern for Lulu's recovery after her mission. Joe also corresponds with Lulu's mother, Dolly, repeating these worries. Lulu reaches out to actress Kitty Jackson, a former client of her mother's, in the hopes of getting in contact with actor Jazz Attenborough, who is, unbeknownst to him, her birth father. She initially encounters some resistance from Kitty's assistant, Ashleigh, but Kitty herself intervenes and reaches out to Lulu. Kitty personally contacts Jazz, who tells her he is not available to talk to Lulu. Concurrently, Kitty's assistant expresses an interest in doing a documentary, without Kitty's knowledge or approval, about Dolly and Kitty's roles in the image rehabilitation of a third-world dictator. Lulu expresses tentative support and receives Jazz's contact information from Ashleigh. She emails Jazz and receives a curt rejection from one of his assistants. Ashleigh suggests she pose as a journalist and pursue an interview. Lulu has no intention of following through on the documentary, but asks her mother if she will play along with Ashleigh's demands in order to snag an interview. Joe tells Dolly he has noticed an improvement in Lulu's mood. Ashleigh suggests doing the interview on a speedboat, as Jazz has a collection of them and it appeals to his desire to be seen as youthful.
Kitty is angry that Ashleigh has gone behind her back about this documentary. They trade barbed insults, but ultimately leave the issue settled between them. Lulu emails Jules, a journalist and uncle of her childhood friend Chris, about adding his name to the interview project as a way of drawing out Jazz's interest. He agrees, and they begin brainstorming. She also makes an offhand comment about likely having a "weevil" implanted in her head. Using coded terminology, Jules is able to suggest the name of someone who can help get it removed. They switch their conversation over to Mondrian's secure messaging service. Lulu reaches out to Jules's contact Ames. He tells her to work with him using Jules as a point of contact and that he lives upstate but has a shop he works out of in New York City.
Jules loops in Bosco Baines, a rockstar he wrote a book about years prior, asking him if he wants to take part in the interview, as Jazz is a big fan of his work. Meanwhile, Jazz exchanges some pointed emails with his various assistants, complaining about the "old man" roles he is being sent. Jazz's primary assistant, Carmine, is able to convince him to do the interview. At the same time, Ashleigh asks Dolly if she has access to anyone from the dictator's inner circle. Dolly reaches out to Arc, one of the dictator's former advisors, who expresses an interest in the project, but says he would have to film in "X," his unnamed home country. Dolly is panicked by how quickly this project is becoming real. At the suggestion of Carmine, Lulu takes the spot of Jazz's former third assistant.
Bosco emails Bennie, Jules's former brother-in-law and Chris's father, about potentially using the interview as a springboard for a rerecording of his old songs. Bennie is interested and gets his old assistant Alex to check in with Bosco to see how his voice sounds. Lulu assists Jazz in taking on the role of a "Sea Cave Warlock" in an upcoming fantasy movie. Ames reaches out to Jules and tells him to bring Lulu, her twins, and a caretaker along to his shop. Jules enlists the help of his sister Stephanie. Stephanie recounts the trip to Bennie, her ex-husband, describing how Ames scanned Lulu and informed her that she has no weevil to extract from her head and no one is spying on her. Stephanie also notes how much more tired and frail Lulu looks and how she broke down crying when Ames told her. She expresses concern for her well-being. Kitty and Ashleigh exchange an even more heated series of emails about the documentary, which has been developing outside of Kitty's view. She is furious but ultimately convinced when Ashleigh tells her it will elevate her status. Bennie arranges for Bosco to be accompanied by Scotty Hausman on guitar and Jazz on vocals. He describes the recording session, and long-awaited interview, in great detail, to Stephanie. He says he saw the boat go by with Bosco singing, Jules on the brink of vomiting, and Lulu saying something to Jazz. He notices that as they get off the boat, Jazz takes extra care in making sure Lulu is safe as she disembarks. Joe emails Dolly to say Lulu has been extremely happy. The final email comes from Lulu, describing the beautiful natural scenery of "X," where she has traveled with her mother to make the documentary after all.
The thirteenth chapter follows Gregory, a writer and Bix's son. It begins in the midst of a snowstorm. His roommate Dennis, a marijuana courier, informs him he has just delivered to Gregory's former creative writing professor, Athena, who asked about him. Gregory recalls his time at NYU's Master of Fine Arts program, where he was mentored by Athena and had a one-time sexual encounter with her. Gregory decides to leave the house, having been unable to do so since his father's decline from ALS, and ventures out into the night. He reflects on the lead-up to his father's demise, remembering the hospital room and the massive outpouring of public grief. He also thinks about the financial and career assistance he spurned and the meaningful reconciliation they never really had.
He arrives at Athena's house and they get high together while talking about writing. She expresses her condolences for the loss of his father. Gregory then recalls that his father left a sizable portion of his income to Mondrian, Mandala's primary antagonist. Seeing the regret expressed by this choice, as Mondrian works to rebuild the personal privacy that Mandala largely destroyed, he wishes he could have talked to Bix about this choice more, as he admires it. It is also revealed that Hannah, Molly's sister, is his lawyer and is referred to as "the Vault" for her preservation of confidentiality. Athena ends the interaction by telling him to finish his novel. He leaves, looks up at the snow, and feels the endless potential for writing to capture the endless variation of human life.
The fourteenth chapter examines Ames Hollander, the quiet brother of Miles and Alfred. It begins at one of his baseball games, in which his mother nervously watches him from the stands. He has two strikes and the game hangs on the outcome of his turn at bat. He hits a great home run and the narrator describes the quiet certainty that allows him to do so, adding that it is the same certainty that later makes him effective as a military service member in Special Ops. The narrator recounts his time in the military, followed by work for private contractors. He eventually walks away from that life and moves to upstate New York with his mother. After discovering a "weevil" implanted in his head by the government, he has it removed, and starts a service to help others scan for and remove weevils. The narrator describes the end of his life in a nursing home, but chooses to end the story back at the baseball game. In the moments following his victory, he is walking to the car with his family, as they celebrate him and his father says they'll get whatever he wants on the drive home.
Analysis
One of the main themes of the email chapter is communication and technology's role in it. Written with no central perspective, the chapter is made up entirely of various online exchanges. This gives the reader a major glimpse inside of the online sphere which has been described elsewhere in the book. The quick pacing of the conversations gives a sense of the enmeshed world the characters inhabit as a result of their constant digital tethers to one another.
However, the instant connection of email and online messaging does not actually make things clearer for the characters. As the chapter progresses, the reader follows the threads that develop as a result of Lulu's quest to tell Jazz that she is his daughter. Other people's interests (Ashleigh, Kitty, Arc) weave their way into the chapter, following their own individual arcs and sometimes presenting issues that directly impede Lulu's pursuits. In taking away a primary perspective or narrative voice, Egan is able to capture the frenetic energy of these chains of interaction, mapping the many intermediary figures that appear in the wake of Lulu. Like the espionage chapter, the form is well-suited to its central subject.
Another major aspect of this chapter is revisiting the past. Early on, Jazz tells his primary assistant that he has always been told to avoid reunions. This is an important part of the chapter as a whole, as it returns to almost every major character from A Visit from the Goon Squad. Fittingly, it also features many characters going back to pivotal parts of their past. Bosco, the rockstar, asks Bennie about rerecording some of his old songs. Dolly and Kitty are being asked to make a documentary about their involvement in the PR campaign of a dictator and his subsequent turn towards democracy. Likewise, Jules is returning to doing celebrity interviews in unusual circumstances, something he had done for a number of magazines years before. All of this indicates the way in which revisiting the past can be fruitful, but also sometimes presents a dangerous lure.
Gregory's brief chapter works as sort of a thesis statement for the book as a whole. Throughout his life, he rejected his father's work, strongly disapproving of its arrogant mission to collectivize consciousness. He instead chooses to pursue a life in the arts, as a writer. He learns later, after his father's death, that his father had regrets about Mandala's impact on the world and chose to leave a sizable part of his money to Mondrian. After reencountering an old mentor, Gregory feels motivated to get back to work on his novel. As the chapter ends, he looks up at the snow and realizes that his work, writing, allows him to experience a multitude of human lives without any of the drawbacks of the Own Your Unconscious technology and its related products. He has a moment of communion with his father's memory, as he sees a common perspective between them.
The last chapter follows a similar theme, as it talks about individuality. It opens with Ames up at bat during a little league game. He strikes out twice, and his mother feels love and worry for his happiness. The narrator notes how cliché these feelings will appear to anyone who has consumed media about children playing sports. However, the narrator then adds that his mother's feelings are actually deeply personal and unique to her. Here, the novel, and Egan, seem to suggest that even if scenes and their outcomes appear predictable or common, every character is entirely their own individual. To reduce them, the book implies, would not only do them a disservice but would be unreflective of the actual nuances inherent to every person.
