Hell of a Book

The narrator and Kelly are still on their date in San Francisco. They walk through a park while Renny drives the limousine along nearby. When Kelly asks if the narrator is defined by his job, the question brings up painful memories of his dead mother. He hallucinates her in a hospital gown, and rushes to a bar nearby to drink away the vision. He also starts talking like an old movie character, calling Kelly “Dollface,” which she doesn’t like. Kelly steps away to take a work call. She says she has to go, and the narrator thinks she just made up an excuse to leave. Insisting this is not the case, she has Renny drive them to her job. They arrive at a funeral home where she is the funeral director. The Kid shows up in the limousine, complaining that he doesn’t want to go inside. The narrator tells him he doesn’t want him to; he and Kelly go in. The funeral home makes the narrator very uncomfortable. 

Kelly enjoys her job. She first became interested when she learned about Egyptian embalming practices as a little girl. In the preparation room, Kelly begins cutting into the cadaver of a middle-aged man. Now the narrator wishes The Kid had come with him. He feels sick, but his legs are too weak and frozen for him to leave. Kelly asks him to recite a poem to distract him, but he can’t think of one. In his mind he hears the beeping of a heart monitor. He sees his mother in place of the cadaver. Then a poem about death comes to his mind. After reciting it, he sees a black arm dangling off another gurney. Against Kelly’s warnings, the narrator uncovers the body and sees that it is The Kid. His body is covered in bullet holes. Kelly explains that this is the boy whose murder has been all over the news. The narrator begins to remember the incident, but he cannot remember the boy’s name. He runs out of the funeral home and takes the limousine back to his hotel. He wakes up drunk, on the floor, and covered in vomit, with Casablanca playing on the television. Renny comes in and helps him get up.

After William’s death, the house feels larger and emptier. Soot’s mother is always sad. She hugs Soot almost all the time and starts sleeping in his bedroom. Her sobbing sometimes wakes Soot up at night. He wishes he could take his mother’s sadness away. He also wishes he could hide from his own sadness. It is not his father’s death that makes him sad, however. He loves and misses his father, but he is gradually forgetting about him. When Soot becomes The Unseen, he can completely forget his father’s death. Now he can disappear on command.

Since his father’s death, women from church come over often, bringing food and praying together. Others come over and talk angrily about the injustice of the incident. Among them is Uncle Paul. He is gentle with Soot and his mother, yet he is forceful and determined about making the police officer pay for what he has done. Paul mentions that the officer lives in Lumberton. He knows the current investigation into the incident won’t lead to any punishment for the officer because William was Black. Soot’s mother doesn’t want Uncle Paul to talk like that in front of Soot, but Uncle Paul claims Soot can’t be shielded from the harsh reality anymore. Soot’s mother tells Soot to leave the room. She needs her son to be invisible, safe, and happy. It would help her to feel better. Soot agrees to go and slips into The Unseen.

It is the same night as Chapter 14, and the narrator is now in the back of Renny’s car. He is still drunk, half asleep, and wearing his hotel robe and slippers. He looks out the window and sees The Kid everywhere, dead and covered in bullet holes. The vehicle pulls up in front of Renny’s house. Renny’s home is an enormous, beautiful mansion. Renny reminds the narrator that he went to Harvard so this should be no surprise. Inside they meet Martha, Renny’s wife. She is excited to meet the narrator and welcomes him in. The three chat as Martha begins cooking. She is always up this late at night because she doesn’t like dreaming. The narrator pours himself another drink, but Renny replaces it with water. Renny asks if the narrator has any family; he does not, but he does have one friend, though he doesn’t name this person. Renny replies that a friend is family.

Later, they are outside Renny’s house looking out on the beauty of San Francisco. Renny explains that he is retired and drives limousines to keep busy and meet interesting people. Renny expresses concern about the narrator and warns him that he must eventually face what is chasing him. Later that night, the narrator sees Renny and Martha’s family photos on the wall. Images from their daughter’s wedding come to life and the narrator imagines himself there, along with his own parents dancing and happy. Then he is back in reality, drunk and lonely. When he is in the guest room, The Kid is there too. The narrator tries to tell the boy that he is dead, but The Kid disagrees. He says the boy in the funeral home was not him. The two sit on the floor together. The Kid can tell that the narrator is lonely; he is lonely, too. He mentions how kids like Tyrone pick on him, but he forgives Tyrone because he is his cousin. He believes people should forgive their family. The Kid offers to teach the narrator how to turn invisible, but he declines. 

The next morning, Kelly comes to drive the narrator to the airport. He tries to apologize, but she stops him. They sing along to “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley the whole way there. Outside the airport, Kelly writes on the narrator’s undershirt and tells him to read it at home. Then Kelly kisses him. His imagination takes over and there are fireworks, bright colors, music, and the crowd is now dressed for a night out. Then reality returns, and they say their goodbyes. In the airplane bathroom, he reads Kelly’s message. It says, “Forgive yourself” (182). On the flight, he is seated next to a large Hawaiian man. The two of them sing “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston at full volume as the airplane pulls away.

Overwhelmed by the tragedy of William’s murder, people in town are gathered in the church. Reverend Brown makes biblical references to Jonah and Daniel to remind the people that it is important to have faith. As Reverend Brown continues recounting Bible stories, the people listen closely and are comforted. Soot is amazed by the Reverend. He observes how stories can help people heal. He hopes to be good at creating stories one day.

Though some church members are feeling better, others are still upset. Uncle Paul and several other men confer together in the back of the church. They make their way out to the parking lot and talk about how they must do something about William’s murder. They know that the law always fails Black people. They share stories about the various ways the law has let them down. They express concern about their own children someday being victims of racial violence. Angry and afraid, the men share beers in the parking lot. After church, Uncle Paul carries Soot back to his truck. Early the next day, Uncle Paul takes Soot to his truck again and shows him a pistol in the glove compartment. He explains that Soot must learn how to use it because the world will not take care of him.

After the narrator’s experience in San Francisco, he returns to his old habits. Still on tour, he meets a beautiful flight attendant who asks him to sign his book. Another passenger, the actor Nic Cage, asks for an autograph. The narrator is astounded; he is a big fan of the actor. Nic Cage goes into a long, philosophical monologue about how people’s expectations of life, the world, and themselves are usually wrong. He explains how you cannot know someone just from watching them on television. Nic Cage observes that the narrator is scared of himself because he has started to question whether he is who other people say he should be. Nic Cage claims that the author has become scared of his own voice. The narrator asks for advice and wants to continue the conversation, but the actor refuses to chat further, saying that life is too short to waste time. This upsets and puzzles the narrator. Nic Cage asks him again to autograph his copy of Hell of a Book and closes his eyes to sleep. The narrator writes a few poetic lines about fear, dying daily to start life over again, and never admitting that he is suffering.

The narrator uses sex and alcohol to cope with his trauma and get through the book tour. He is comforted by The Kid, who appears more often now. He likes The Kid a lot because of his empathetic imagination and his corny jokes. The narrator leaves a book signing in Pennsylvania early because The Kid wants candy from Chocolate World. There, The Kid runs and grabs candy. The narrator scolds him for this. The Kid doesn’t understand why it matters what he does if he is invisible. The narrator explains it’s because of his skin color. The boy doesn’t get it, and the narrator is surprised that his parents never had The Talk with him about the realities of racism. The narrator goes on explaining how Black people are treated differently. The world kills their innocence as children, and the knowledge of this racism slowly turns them mad. Starting to feel bad for forcing The Kid to learn the hard truth, the narrator punishes himself by staring into the sun until it hurts. The narrator remembers when his parents had The Talk with him. They had tried to shield him from the truth but couldn’t any longer. Overwhelmed, the narrator vomits all over The Kid.

Then, Sharon calls to say she is sending him to Bolton, the town where the boy got shot and, in fact, the narrator’s hometown. She is setting up an interview with him and the boy’s mother in Detroit because the boy’s mother has been asking to meet him. The narrator didn’t know any of this. Sharon explains that he needs to be part of the big news surrounding the incident, and the interview will be great publicity for his book. The narrator is upset and doesn’t want to return to his hometown. It holds too many painful memories. He drops his phone in disbelief.