Even the dapper and irrepressible Arnaud Roth is maimed during a mugging, after which he vanishes from the Berlands' circle. Against these precise chronological reckonings Salter establishes another sort of time, one that is impressionistic, almost pointillistic. At different points in the narrative we see Nedra consulting a dream book, reading Arnaud's tarot cards, and reading her own palm. The characters in Light Years communicate obliquely. In spite of Viri's entreaties, she never explains what she means by that old life or if she does, we do not hear her.
Life is meals.
Lunches on a blue checked cloth on which salt has spilled. The smell of tobacco.