Atdtda31: Class-brother, 890

[Paul Nightingale]

The previous section began with a “plan” to “live among their kind” (888);
nothing comes of this ambition until the new section, and the
arrival--serendipity, indeed--of “Reef’s old New Orleans Anarchist bunkmate
Wolfe Tone O’Rooney” (890). Reef (“Just give me a minute ...”) is ready to
leave straightaway. Having, on the previous page, thrown pasta at Cyprian
(889), here he insists: “I’m as good a shot as any of you stumblebums”
(890).

Cyprian and Yashmeen don’t feature in this brief section, the narrative
fixed on Reef and a return “to where he had wandered off the trail, so long
ago” (888). In 60.14 also, Reef was isolated, the dream returning him to his
family, “after years of avoidance” (887). Here, he is returned to “Anarchist
unruliness” (890) with the action reaching Monte Carlo. The previous section
was governed by stasis, indeed, an inability to move forward: “They got no
further up the valley ... than Bagni di Lucca” (888). Now, fast-forward to
Monte Carlo and another return of the repressed in the form of Wolfe Tone.
Webb speaks of “small victories” (887); his presence also dream-like, as
though appearing in a vision to Reef alone, Wolfe Tone predicts “[s]omething
truly terrible” (890). At this Reef doesn’t protest, doesn’t insist on
grasping the opportunity to leave the ménage-a-trois: perhaps he is
reconsidering what Webb told him?