The Dew Breaker

The title of Part 4 should prompt readers to think about parallels with Part 1, “The Book of the Dead.” In fact, this part deals with the Dew Breaker, Ka, and Ka’s mother Anne, though we do not necessarily know this at the beginning.

Like the previous two parts, this story is recounted in the third person, with Anne’s point of view and experiences dominating the narrative. At the start, Anne is relating miracles that she has heard about on a religious radio program to her husband and adolescent daughter. Anne is frustrated because her daughter acts distracted during her story, but her husband helps by drawing out details of the story from her. We are clued in to the identities of the characters when Anne reflects on her disappointment that her daughter is an atheist and that her husband visits the ancient Egyptian statues in the Brooklyn Museum as if to pay them religious tribute. Anne is driving them to Christmas Eve Mass in hope of counteracting some of their religious failings.

They drive through a cemetery, and Anne finds it upsetting that the cemetery is bisected by the highway.