Summary Beli, Lola, and Yunior go down to the Dominican Republic to claim Oscar’s body. He is brought home to be buried. Beli’s cancer returns, and she will be dead within a year. Lola grieves for her mother, writing her a poem. Yunior reflects on the futility of his own efforts to bring some measure of comfort to the family.

Lawyers are engaged to bring about justice, but it is fruitless. There is no cooperation from the Dominican government. Ybón continues with the life she has chosen. La Inca sells her house and moves back to her childhood home. Lola vows never to return to the Dominican Republic.

Lola and Yunior break off their engagement because Lola continues to have suspicions of Yunior’s fidelity. Later he hears that she has gone to Miami, gotten pregnant, and is now married. When he calls her, she hangs up on him.

Yunior continues to think and dream about Oscar. In one dream, Oscar is in a bailey (part of a castle) surrounded by books. He is wearing a mask, but Yunior still recognizes him. Oscar holds up a book, held in seamless hands, with no title and with blank pages. A single word comes to Yunior’s mind: Zafa (breaking through the curse of fukú).

Yunior, at a time when his life is at its lowest, proclaims concession to Oscar’s past pleas that he give up this life. Ten years after Oscar’s death, he is sober and teaching composition and creative writing at a community college. He is married, has given up (to a large extent) chasing women, and devotes himself to writing. He states that he has become a new man.

Occasionally, Yunior runs into Lola, who has moved back to New Jersey with her family. Lola has a daughter, Dolores, to whom she introduces Yunior as her tio’s (uncle’s) best friend. Yunior still thinks about what could have been, but all they really talk about is Oscar.

Yunior speculates on the future visit of Lola’s daughter, when she will be seeking answers about her uncle. He will show her Oscar’s books and his writings. She wears three amulets around her neck, those that belonged to Oscar, Lola, and Beli. One day, Yunior muses, she will be the one to break the circle of the fukú.

Yunior speaks of the graphic novel Watchmen. Oscar has marked one panel (the fact that Oscar defaced a book is something that Yunior finds significant). The character seeks reassurance: “I did the right thing, didn’t I? It all worked out in the end.” Another character, Dr. Manhattan, replies, “Nothing ever ends.”

Letters that Oscar had sent before his murder arrive. In addition, eight months after Oscar’s death, a package arrives from him. It contains two manuscripts, along with a letter to Lola.  He speaks of a second package that will arrive, containing another book. Oscars states that the conclusion will explain everything, that it will contain the answer to the revocation of the fukú. But the package never arrives.

Oscar’s letter also reveals that he and Ybón did make love. They spent the weekend together before his death. Though Oscar definitely enjoyed finally making love, what intrigued him most was the small “intimacies” of their daily lives. He asks Ybón what he should call this long wait to lose his virginity. She suggests that they simply call it “life.”

Analysis The final chapter, with the two epilogues, provide a satisfactory conclusion to the novel. As much as possible, the author (through Yunior’s perspective) ties up most of the loose ends about Oscar. The...