Reading in the Dark

Rats, November 1950

Derry had air-raid shelters during WWII that were destroyed in 1950. After that, the area became a dumping ground, and the city developed a “rat problem” (78). One day, the narrator accompanies men who attempt to kill the rats by smoking them out of the demolished shelters and burning them with paraffin. 

Crazy Joe, August 1951

Crazy Joe is a fixture around town, and “something […] happened when he was a young man and he had never been right since” (81). He often spends time at the library. One day, Joe invites the narrator into the art room, which is “Reserved for Adults” (82). There, he shows the narrator a painting of a nude woman by François Boucher.

The narrator returns to the library, and he and Joe go on a walk outside. Joe tells the narrator the story of Larry McLaughlin. In the story, Larry walks up a hill, and he meets a woman on his way back to town. As the two lay down in a field together to have sex, the woman transforms into a fox. When Larry returns home, “he was babbling” (88). The priest reports that Larry cannot marry his fiancée and will never have children.