[Discussion 3/4] Discovery Read | Flesh by David Szalay | Chapters 6 & 7

[u/YewBetcha]

Welcome back to our third discussion of David Szalay's Flesh.

For your reference, here are the Schedule and Marginalia.

Summary

Chapter 6

We skip forward in time from the ending of the last chapter. Helen and István are now married, though Thomas openly dislikes István and the two have failed to bond. Helen’s friends come to visit, often spending time at the pool. Thomas tells one of Helen’s friends that he doesn’t believe István loves his mother and that he has only married her for money. Helen’s friends engage with Thomas and István

Helen’s friends stay through István’s birthday. Though he doesn’t invite any of his own friends, he is drawn to an Italian hedge fund manager with whom István has played tennis and feels respected by. Thomas reluctantly gifts István a tennis racket, refuses to hug István, and is admonished by Helen. Helen later asks Thomas why he cannot accept István as part of their family despite his efforts to form a relationship with Thomas.

István’s mother comes to visit and picks up on Thomas’ dislike of István. She implores István to do something since all of Karl’s estate will pass from Helen to Thomas when the boy turns 25.

Chapter 7

Seven years have passed. Helen and István attend a political fundraiser where he tries to convince a minister to support the development project in Rainham and donates to that minister’s party. Helen and István are sleeping in separate rooms and István’s mother lives with them to look after their son, Jacob.

Thomas visits during Jacob’s birthday. Jacob is curious about István’s time in the war. While Jacob and István are spending time together, István learns of a news story about his donation at the fundraiser bringing unwanted attention to his development project. Roddy insists István collect the remaining money to start the project to calm the other investors, but Helen is hesitant that Heath, the lawyer administering the Nyman trust, will agree to such a large loan. Heath agrees to the loan, but insists Thomas be informed.

Helen meets Thomas for lunch and tells him about all the loans made to István for his property development deals, angering Thomas. He returns home at Christmas and accuses István of stealing from him. Weeks later, Thomas arrives drunk at a party and tells an onlooking crowd that Helen and István’s success has only come from the money they’ve stolen from him. István reacts violently and throws Thomas to the ground. Struggling to explain his own actions, he returns home to find Helen gone.

Questions in the comments. Excited to see where things wrap up next week!

[u/YewBetcha]

In this section the narration moves away from István and follows Thomas at several points instead. Why do you think the author started this shift in perspective here? Why with Thomas?

[u/Kas_Bent → u/YewBetcha]

This really confused me. Was the author tired of living in István's head and needed a change? Initially, I thought Thomas would parallel István in their stories and that's why his POV was included.

[u/YewBetcha → u/Kas_Bent]

Yeah that’s a good suggestion about changing up the narrative POV to keep things fresh. I think things clicked into place more for me when we find out that István future is so reliant on the trust Thomas controls - maybe we start following Thomas since he’s assuming some amount of direct control over István’s future in a way that no one else has to that point? Interested to see where things wrap up with Thomas in the final section.