Underworld

Matt Shay is a weapons researcher, performing “consequence analysis, figuring out the lurid mathematics of a nuclear accident or limited exchange” (401). He works on a missile range in the New Mexico desert. His coworker Eric eats lunch with Matt most days. Eric takes great joy in spreading elaborate rumors about what would happen in the aftermath of a nuclear strike. These conspiracies help him feel “the edge. The bite. The existential burn” (406). Matt, meanwhile, welcomes any distraction from his work. He thinks about how his father abandoned the family when Matt was six years old. Matt is thinking about going camping with his current girlfriend, Janet. He feels the need to practice his driving before the trip, so he borrows a car. While driving, he sees a group of people protesting nuclear weapons on the perimeter of the missile range. Matt tries to talk to one of the protesters, but she will not speak to him. Eventually, they make small talk and Matt discusses “the need to match our weapons against theirs” (419). She is not impressed. At Eric’s party, Matt smokes “something that [makes] him immobile” (420). Driving the next day, he struggles to remember his strange conversation with Eric.

Klara visits a cinema with Miles, Esther, and Jack, Esther’s husband. They attend a screening of Unterwelt, the “legendary lost film” of Sergei Eisenstein (424), which is accompanied by a live music performance. The film itself is completely silent, depicting a “mad scientist” who fires a laser at prisoners. Klara thinks about the film’s director, Eisenstein. She wonders whether he intended the film to be an analogy for the Cold War. During the intermission, she wonders whether she is actually enjoying the film.

While they watch the film, Moonman 157 paints a train carriage. Moonman is actually Ismael Munoz, aged 16. He has a small crew of graffiti artists to help him with the painting. As they prepare, Ismael thinks about the jazz musician Charlie Parker and the woman who is carrying his child. He is not interested in seeing her. The crew visits an abandoned subway station. Ismael thinks about another time that he visited this station. On that occasion, he was sexually abused by a man he didn’t know. Ismael returned to the man and had sex with him. Ismael occasionally has “sex with men because some habits you drop and others you come to rely on” (437). He begins painting the carriage, wondering who will see his art. He appreciates the way in which the painted carriages travel around the city, forcing the city’s inhabitants to acknowledge his existence and his stories of “tenement life, good and bad but mostly good” (440). When crew members ask Ismael about the girl, he declines to answer.

After the intermission, Klara returns to her seat. She becomes increasingly invested in the film and ponders the “contradictions of being” that Eisenstein explores (444). After, the film is all she can think about.

Though Matt is still thinking about his “paranoid episode” the night before, he and Janet go camping. Matt is delighted to escape his work and be with Janet, who seems nervous. He imagines their future, hoping that he will be able to quit his job. Their interactions are a little awkward; they have been together for some time but Matt’s job means that they do not live near one another. As they travel, Matt feels the overwhelming presence of the military everywhere. They sign a liability release acknowledging that they will be camping near an area where military training takes place. They identify the local wildlife and plants using books Matt packed for the trip. Whenever he tries to bring up the subject of quitting his job, Janet insists that he should stay put. She believes that he makes “weapons safer.” This will mean that they must continue their long-distance relationship.

Matt tries to voice his concerns about the morality of working on weapons systems. To Janet, however, his work makes her feel safe. She is convinced that the Soviet Union is developing something more terrible than anything Matt could imagine, so he must work on weapons to protect her. He tells her “the story” about his father leaving. They spot an eagle. One evening, they camp in an abandoned bunker. The setting makes Matt think of his tour of Vietnam. He did not want to join the war but he felt a sense of responsibility. Matt walks out of the bunker and into the woods. He wants to watch the sun rise. Sitting on the ground, he waits for the light to appear. The sun rises behind him and Matt realizes that he has been facing “the wrong direction” the entire time (467). They end their camping trip and drive home, “not yet ready to talk to each other” (468).

As her “rooftop summer” continues (469), Klara feels despondent and unenthused about her work. However, she misses creating art. She discusses the problem with Acey, who is also struggling. Klara talks about her relationship with Miles, which is on the verge of ending because he isn’t ready for commitment. They get along well but she cannot imagine herself marrying him. She tells Acey about having an affair with a “juvenile delinquent” when she was still married to Arthur. The delinquent, it is later revealed, was Nick. Klara loudly cheerleads Acey’s latest project but does not disagree with Miles when he claims that “her stuff is all show” (479). To regain her inspiration, Klara decides to stay in Esther’s home in Sagaponack. Though she waits for some time, the inspiration never arrives. She spends most of her time visiting Esther’s husband, Jack, in the hospital and reflects on how she came to change her name following her divorce. Miles tells her about a showing of a film that will make her “hate him” but that she must see. At the end of the summer, Acey premieres her new collection. In the collection, she has painted the portraits of a number of Hollywood starlets. The collection reviews are negative, but Klara is jealous that Acey was able to produce something. After attending a screening of the film Miles urged her to see—the Zapruder film of JFK’s assassination—Klara ends her relationship with Miles. Shortly after, she marries Carlo Strasser.