Tropic of Cancer

Henry thinks about the friendships he has ruined, particularly with married couples, saying, “One by one the husbands turn against me, or the wives” (54). On the verge of losing one of his patrons, he remembers the day several months earlier when he learned he could get a free meal simply by asking for one. He thinks about the friends who are still willing to feed him for free and then goes to Tania and Sylvester’s for dinner. Tania is playing an adagio on the piano and Moldorf is also there, still giving her “a monstrous look of gratitude” (56). In Henry’s mind, various conversations about wine, music, and theater all blend together. He reflects on Tania and Sylvester’s marriage, concluding that Sylvester doesn’t deserve his wife.

Henry is now living a “communal” (60) life with some Russians, a Dutchman, and a Bulgarian woman named Olga. Olga is a cobbler whose work largely supports the other tenants. Henry vividly describes the food consumed in the home, particularly the soup, and notes that the smell of rancid frying butter is constant. There is frequently music in the house, and Henry and the others often go to the cinema in the afternoon.