“And again?” O’Faolein’s summary


In the spring morning of 1965, a resident of Dublin, journalist Younger, who turns sixty-five on this day, receives a strange message. Its authors. Celestial Celestials, who are in Eternity, inform him that they have chosen him as the “experimental participant in the experiment,” which gives him the opportunity to live life anew. Celestials chose Yangere because he is a “small face” and because of this he will not give them any trouble. Younger is hinted that if he refuses to participate in the experiment, in an hour he will die under the wheels of the truck. At the same time, the Celestials point out to him that they, as supernatural beings, foresee his decision and congratulate him in advance. At the same time, they put Yanger two conditions for his “second coming”: without losing the fullness of his life experience, he will forget almost everything he has experienced, and the sixty-five years he has given him will live in the reverse order, steadily

growing younger, until his “motherly womb of time” tightens back “at the mature zero age”. Younger goes outside to “check” whether he really faces the death predicted by the Celestials. When he sees a truck that is about to crush a little girl, he does not know for several agonizing seconds how to do it – pull the girl out from under the wheels and die himself or indifferently watch her die. But unexpectedly for himself, he feels a fear that completely paralyzes his will, and he sees with horror how the driver of the truck and the girl are dying. He is outraged by the cunning of the Celestials, who dexterously played on his cowardice and actually deprived him of the opportunity to choose. Younger believes, that “a person is incapable of solving freely, if he does not know what kind of person he is.” However, in anticipation of a new life, Yanger quickly becomes comforted and tries at least in basic terms to restore her former life.

Part 1-I. Ana. 1965-1970

His old mistress Ana French, to whom he explains that he suffers from amnesia, helps him remember

everything related to their long-standing romance. Ana tells him the extremely intricate history of their relationship, about how the “love triangle” emerged, in the emergence of which her husband, gynecologist, inveterate athlete, careerist and, incidentally, impotent, played an important role. It takes five years. Younger gradually enters into the taste of the “second” life he has given up and, continuing to love Anu, is fond of her daughter, the painter Anadion, whose husband, sculptor Leslie Longfield, was also Ana’s lover. Ana dies, and Younger sums up the five years of his life, lived “in reverse order”: he realized that every choice means “careless submission to fate,” and wants to relive everything anew.

Part 2-I. Anadion. 1970-1990

Younger meets with the Catholic priest Dez Moran, whom he knew many years ago. He recognizes Yanger and confesses to him that when he was still a young theological student, he had a love affair with Ana and he is confident that Anadion is his daughter. Younger learns that Leslie met an elderly man named Jimmy Younger at an exhibition of his works in Philadelphia, who considers himself the son of the famous journalist Robert Younger. Younger, who continues to inexorably grow young, is struck by the fact that he has a son who already suits him as a father. In addition, it turns out that Jimmy, who was a boy in America, was guarded by Yanger’s brother, Stephen, whom he also does not remember. Moreover, Younger learns that Jimmy has a son named Bob in his honor. Younger is increasingly confused in the maze of his past. Anadion was fifty-four years old, and her daughter Nana – seventeen. Yanger flirts with a girl, an aging Anadion suffers from jealousy. Leslie dies as a result of an absurd accident. Younger becomes Nana’s lover, and Anadion soon dies. Younger learns that before his death Leslie, who guessed Yanger’s connection with Nana and intercepted their love letters, gave all of Yanger’s letters to Nana and Anadion Desa, who showed them to Nana. This leads to a quarrel between Nana and Younger. At this moment, the house is the grandson of Yanger Bob, who came from America to find all the Yangers he could find, because he was deeply concerned about the past of his heroic family, who distinguished himself in the Irish uprising. Younger becomes Nana’s lover, and Anadion soon dies. Younger learns that before his death Leslie, who guessed Yanger’s connection with Nana and intercepted their love letters, gave all of Yanger’s letters to Nana and Anadion Desa, who showed them to Nana. This leads to a quarrel between Nana and Younger. At this moment, the house is the grandson of Yanger Bob, who came from America to find all the Yangers he could find, because he was deeply concerned about the past of his heroic family, who distinguished himself in the Irish uprising. Younger becomes Nana’s lover, and Anadion soon dies. Younger learns that before his death Leslie, who guessed Yanger’s connection with Nana and intercepted their love letters, gave all of Yanger’s letters to Nana and Anadion Desa, who showed them to Nana. This leads to a quarrel between Nana and Younger. At this moment, the house is the grandson of Yanger Bob, who came from America to find all the Yangers he could find, because he was deeply concerned about the past of his heroic family, who distinguished himself in the Irish uprising.

Part 3-I. Nana. 1990-2024

In a conversation with Bob, who persistently raises his information about his grandfather’s brother, Youner has to impersonate his own father and become his own son. Boba and Nana are attracted to each other, Nana becomes his secretary, studies family archives and meets the connoisseur of the genealogy Amy Poinset. Nana concludes that Yanger’s physical existence can not be confirmed by any documents. She tells Yangner that Bob actually came to find out if there are any relatives in Ireland who can claim a big inheritance: the fact is that Bob’s father died without leaving a will. Realizing that Younger hides something from her and does not want to reveal herself to her, she goes to Paris to study philosophy, but Yanger comes there and reveals her secret to her. They become a husband and wife and in 1994 they have a daughter, Ana. The girl is sent to study in a boarding school, and Nana receives a PhD in forty-one years, but becomes painfully sensitive to the difference of their years. When Younger grows younger enough to look younger than his daughter, Nana persuades him to leave.

Part 4-I. Christabel. 2010-2015

Younger meets Bob Younger in Boston, appears to be his own son and is visiting his estate in Texas. He falls in love with Bob’s sixteen-year-old daughter, who was named Kristabel in honor of the great-grandmother, that is, Yanger’s first wife. He becomes her first lover, but the romantic storehouse of his soul is alien to her, and she soon throws him to marry the Jew Bill Meister, who is twice her age, although Father Christabel is terrified of such an alliance. In the estate of Bob comes Amy Poinset and exposes Yangera, who, she said, is an imposter and a deceiver. Family scandal is played out, and Kristabel, having shot a father from a revolver, injures him, and then, along with Yanger, flies. After some time, Younger learns that Kristabel obeyed the will of his father and refused to marry Bill Meister. Younger, who will soon be thirteen years old,

Part 5-I. Farewell. 2030

Nana resigns from the university, where she lectured on philosophy, does not see anyone and devotes herself entirely to Yanger. Now she herself records in his notebook, noting the age-old metamorphoses of her husband, who turns into a lovely baby. Once a one-year-old baby Yanger, who manages to crawl to his notebook, leaves a farewell record in it. If before, at the very beginning of his “second life”, he only guessed that it was impossible to live again a lifetime, but now he is sure of it. However, Yanger is grateful to the gods for this gift, and Nana – for her love, thanks to which he, Younger, recognized his mother’s features in his beloved, because he saw in the guise of Nana “the outcome of his life, the combination of ends and beginnings.” Yanger thanks Nana for discovering his past and going along with him for a loss. The last entry in the notebook was made by Nana’s hand. She writes about how Yanger decreased to the size of a silkworm, and then disappeared. She is puzzled by the question of why the gods conducted this experiment, if it was clear to them that, no matter how much you add to the life experience, he still will not learn anything. Nana has a feeling that the gods simply forgot about the purpose of their cruel game, and she does not exclude the possibility that she will be offered to be young, and Yanger, who is somewhere nearby, tiny as a moth, will grow again and grow up. Reflecting on this possibility, she realizes that she will gladly agree to everything, just to be with him, with a boy, an adult, an old man. “Again and again and again and…” She is puzzled by the question of why the gods conducted this experiment, if it was clear to them that, no matter how much you add to the life experience, he still will not learn anything. Nana has a feeling that the gods simply forgot about the purpose of their cruel game, and she does not exclude the possibility that she will be offered to be young, and Yanger, who is somewhere nearby, tiny as a moth, will grow again and grow up. Reflecting on this possibility, she realizes that she will gladly agree to everything, just to be with him, with a boy, an adult, an old man. “Again and again and again and…” She is puzzled by the question of why the gods conducted this experiment, if it was clear to them that, no matter how much you add to the life experience, he still will not learn anything. Nana has a feeling that the gods simply forgot about the purpose of their cruel game, and she does not exclude the possibility that she will be offered to be young, and Yanger, who is somewhere nearby, tiny as a moth, will grow again and grow up. Reflecting on this possibility, she realizes that she will gladly agree to everything, just to be with him, with a boy, an adult, an old man. “Again and again and again and…” and she does not exclude the possibility that she will be offered to be young, and Younger, who is somewhere near, tiny, like a moth, will grow again and grow up. Reflecting on this possibility, she realizes that she will gladly agree to everything, just to be with him, with a boy, an adult, an old man. “Again and again and again and…” and she does not exclude the possibility that she will be offered to be young, and Younger, who is somewhere near, tiny, like a moth, will grow again and grow up. Reflecting on this possibility, she realizes that she will gladly agree to everything, just to be with him, with a boy, an adult, an old man. “Again and again and again and…”


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“And again?” O’Faolein’s summary