The Lacuna - 08. 'Casa Trotsky, 1939-1940', and 'The Train Station Notebook, 1940' (March 2013)

[Terry]

In these two chapters, we see life at Casa Trotsky, together with the ignominious end of that chapter in Harrison's life, as his friend Lev is finally assassinated. We then see Harrison leave Mexico with Frida's paintings, but without his notebooks or his unfinished novel.

The book sails very close to recorded history in this part. Has it changed any of your perceptions, or given you any new perspectives?

'There will not be another notebook after this one. No need. No more pages piling up. Oh, the childish hope of that. As if a stack of pages could someday grow high enough that a boy could stand on top of it and be as tall as Jack London or Dos Passos.'

Harrison seems to have lost almost everything at this point. How do you think the different losses have taken their toll? Which do you think sits heaviest with him?