The story starts out with the husband learning that his wife has an old friend coming to visit them. She then tells him that the person coming to visit it an older blind man named Robert and that his wife had just passed away. The narrators wife had worked for the blind man one summer before the two had become married and her and the blind man had stayed in touch since then, I think it said it had been ten years or so since they had last seen each other. The two stayed in contact with each other over the years by sending audio cassette tapes to each other. On the tapes were the events and things that had happened in each others lives since they had sent the last tape. Well to start with the husband wasn't very thrilled with the idea of the blind man coming to stay at his house as he says, " I wasn't enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me."...(pg. 108). At this point if i was in the husbands shoes i would have more than likely felt the same way.
The story then goes on to tell some of the events that happened on the tape from both the wife's life and the life of Robert the blind man. The husband still doesn't like the idea of Robert coming to visit and his wife i think started to get annoyed with him as she says, "If you love me, you can do this for me. If you don't love me, okay. But if you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I'd make him feel comfortable." (pg 111). His wife then becomes more frustrated as he responds by saying he doesn't have any blind friends. The wife then responds by saying " you don't have any friends, period. Besides goddamn it his wife just died! Don't you understand that. The man's lost his wife!" (pg 111) His wife then starts to tell him of how Robert had meet his wife. The he starts to feel kind of bad for Roberts wife because she had to go through life with her husband not being able to see anything. He said she must have been hurt a lot by the fact that she could never get a compliment from her spouse about how nice she looked or anything.
His wife then goes to the train depot to pick up Robert and brings him back to the house. They all gather in the house and the wife and Robert talk non stop about the train ride and all the things that have happened lately in their lives. The husband tries to chime in from time to time but i can tell he still feels pretty awkward about the situation. Then they eat supper and no one says a word and the husband says, " We dug in . We ate everything there was to eat on the table. We ate like there was no tomorrow." (pg 115) My guess is that they scarfed down their food so fast because they had been drinking the whole time that they were talking. The husband just like i would seems to be amazed by the fact that Robert seems to know were everything is on his plate and uses his knife and fork to cut his meat as though he can see everything perfectly. After supper they go back into the living room to talk and have some more drinks. After a while his wife goes up stairs to change into her robe and the husband is left there with the blind man. Even though i think he has become a little more comfortable with the situation i still think its a little awkward for him, which is understandable. While his wife is gone he turns the tv on and the two men start to talk a little more. His wife comes back down stairs and sit between them on the couch and falls asleep shortly after. To me this is when the two men seem to become comfortable with each other. They both watch tv, well one watches tv and the other one listen, have drinks and smoke cigarettes and dope. They can't find anything good on tv so they end up watching a program about cathedrals. The husband tries to describe to Robert how a cathedral looks put does a pitiful job at it.
Robert then ask the husband to try and draw a cathedral for him while he holds on to his hands so that he can kind of get a feel for how one looks. This is the point in the story that i believe the husband really starts to connect with Robert. The husband starts out slow thinking that he can't do it but with Robert encouraging him he continuous on and starts to feel really good about his drawing. Robert then ask the husband to continue drawing but with his eyes closed. he does and when they are done drawing Robert ask him what he thinks. The husband replies by saying, " My eyes were still closed. i was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything. Its really something." (pg 124) I can't really get a feel for how the husband feels at this point.
To me this story seemed to be kind of a feel good story. It starts out with the husband not wanting this strange man in his house, especially since he was blind. But over time I think he really made a connection with Robert. In the end of the story when they are done with the drawing of the cathedral I think the husband kind of gets a feel for how Robert has to live his life without being able to see and starts to feel sorry for the man. I think he kind of had a feeling of pride or accomplishment when he got done drawing the picture while having his eyes closed. Something that kind of randomly pops out at me now is the fact that the wife has a tendency to repeat a lot of things. For example when she tells them to wake her up when they are on the couch talking she must have told them 2 or 3 time in a row. Another thing is that the blind man doesn't wear any kind of glasses, he has a beard, doesn't use a cane, and he smokes non stop. This doesn't really fit into place right here but it was just a random thought that popped into my head at the moment. Overall i thought this was a really good book. I liked it.
Disconcerting- to upset the self possession of...to frustrate.
Gargoyles- a carved stone statue usually made of granite...used to convey water from the roof and away from the side of a building.
Cathedral- a religious building for worship....used by Roman Catholic, some Methodist, and some Lutheran churches.
Viaducts-a bridge composed of several small spans.
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