49 pages • 1 hour read
Robert CormierA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
A couple, Arnold and Edna, stop their station wagon. Edna, recovering from a strike, doesn’t want Arnold to check on Adam. She thinks people should stick to their “own business,” but Arnold wants to help Adam get out of the ditch and give him a ride to Hookset—they can keep his bike in the wagon. The car smells like sickly liniment, and Edna feels uncomfortable with a stranger. Adam tries to relax, but he feels carsick. Quietly, he sings “The Farmer in the Dell.” Time passes quickly, and Adam wonders if they’re already in Hookset. Edna says they’re not liars.
In the tape transcript, Adam complains that needles hurt his arms. Brint says the needles countered Adam’s “retreating” into silence, and Adam admits he knows about “the gray man.” Now, Adam thinks he “knows everything.”
Adam connects “the gray man” to the murder story his dad told him of “The Invisible Man.
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