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The Man in the High Castle Chapter 7 Summary

  • If you like Childan, get ready for an uncomfortable chapter. We're talking Curb Your Enthusiasm levels of uncomfortable.
  • Childan is going over to the Kasouras' apartment for dinner. He's got a nice gift (scrimshaw) to give them, and he got a refund from Ray Calvin for those fake guns. So, he's feeling pretty good.
  • And then he starts talking politics with the Kasouras and they almost get into an argument. (Check this section out for how Childan seems pretty pro-Nazi, defending the honor of high-placed Nazis.)
  • On top of that, Childan finds himself attracted to Betty Kasouras.
  • And then, on top of that, they start discussing literature that Childan hasn't read. They discuss The Grasshopper Lies Heavy—and there's a cute discussion between Paul and Betty about whether alternate history fits in the "genre" of science fiction.
  • On top of that, Paul talks about how great jazz is, but Childan says he doesn't like anything but classical music.
  • During this super-awkward dinner, Childan notes that the world would be worse if the Allies won—Communism and Slavs and Jews everywhere. This only makes things more awkward when the Kasouras disagree.
  • As if things weren't awkward enough, Paul discusses Nathanael West's weird and troubling Miss Lonelyhearts, which has a "strange view about suffering" (101). (It has a strange view about everything.) Paul wonders if it's because West was Jewish.
  • To which Childan notes that it's a good thing the Germans won, or the Jews would be secretly running the world.
  • That's kind of the end of dinner—it's hard to get back on track after something like that. Try it at Thanksgiving and see. (Note: don't try it.) Childan feels a huge gap between him and these Japanese.
  • Back at his office, a policeman asks Childan about the guy who impersonated the admiral's assistant back in Chapter 4. Childan signs a paper that says this Frank Frink guy tried to swindle him.
  • And just so we know Childan is kind of a jerk, he notes that his favorite Nazi is Seyss-Inquart, the Nazi who masterminded the genocide in Africa.