The Chain of Chance (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Stanislaw Lem
- First Published: 1976
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction
- Time of Work: The late 1970’s
- Setting: Naples and Rome, Italy; and Paris, France
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: France or French people, Suicide, Paris, Detectives, Mysteries, Depression, mental, Terrorism or terrorists, Italy or Italians, Mathematics or mathematicians, Poisons or poisoning, Rome, Chemicals
- Locales: Paris, France, Rome, Italy, Naples, Italy
Characters Discussed
John, the narrator, a laconic fifty-year- old American private detective of French Canadian origin who has been hired to investigate the death of an American named Adams. An unreflective man of action, almost a machine, he seldom becomes nervous or frightened. As an astronaut, he learned how to wait patiently for those moments when quick and decisive action was required, yet he can make quite impulsive decisions, as when he enlisted in the commandos at the age of eighteen and participated in the invasion of Normandy as a glider infantryman. Dismissed from...
[The entire page is 584 words long]
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