Discussion - Week Two - The Erasers - Chapter Two & Three

[Jim]

This discussion covers Chapter Two and Three, p. 71 – 133


What’s going on this twisting turning town of repetitions reflections and recognitions?

[Mala]

Wallas continues his investigations– meeting with the old housekeeper Mrs.Smite, the neighbour across the street, Madame Bax, who knows more than she lets on,& the drunk,a chronic presence in the Café des Allies, ten Rue des Arpenteurs,who claims to have accosted Wallas the night before when the latter was reportedly hundred miles away from the scene of the crime...

The titular 'Erasers' have already made their appearance twice– as an excuse to start a conversation at stationery shops but what could be the figurative meaning behind them? Wallas' childhood memories are coming back in snatches to trouble him.

The terrorist group's boss (?) Jean Bonaventure—called “Bona” is introduced & so is his counterpart,the intelligence chief,Fabius. The narrative is non-linear, therefore,even though the time line is of twenty four hours only,events & characters seem to superimpose leading to a distorted sense of time and place.

Bona is expecting a visit "from someone who can be counted on: it is to this person that tonight’s execution, the second, will be entrusted. In the first murder, he had been kept in the background, but his work was flawless." Who is this second person?

Hints are dropped throughout about the identity of the secret assassin – & I picked them up early enough!

Chapter 3 is Commissioner Laurent's reconstruction of Dupont's suicide/murder,a hysterical visitor reiterates Wallas' conspiracy theory & Wallas visits a post office where the staff is surprised to see him. What's exactly going on here!

[Mekki]

I'm wondering on the significance of the "erasers"..

by definition erasers are used to remove something. what could he need to erase or is it just a quirk?

mirrors and reflections are brought up several times.. so far in part 1 and and in part 2. sorta of like the mistaken identity of in the post office. wallas seems to be a mirror image of some one else.

[Jim]

Mekki wrote: "I'm wondering on the significance of the "erasers"..

by definition erasers are used to remove something. what could he need to erase or is it just a quirk?

mirrors and reflections are brought up ..."

So far, the meaning of the erasers is unclear. What's significant at this point is that he can't find the exact eraser he wants, much like he can't find the exact clues and solution to the crime that he wants.