60 pages • 2-hour read
How High We Go in the Dark
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Used-To-Be Party”
This chapter is written in email format, addressed to the members of a neighborhood. Dan Paul invites the community to his house for a barbeque. He suggests that people can make it a potluck or just come if they’re feeling overwhelmed in the world. He volunteers to accompany anyone feeling overwhelmed on errands, recalling his own feelings after waking up.
Dan introduces himself to the neighbors by reminding them of his wife and daughter and reflecting that he used to be an introvert. After the death of his loved ones, he’s feeling lonely. He was one of the comatose plague victims held in a Boeing hangar for care, but by the time he awoke, his wife and daughter had already died. He pretends that they’re still alive some mornings, walking through their old family routines, but by night he becomes wrought with grief. He travels around the community and reflects on how it has changed.
Two months after the first plague victims were cured, he works by answering social media messages to the dead. He meets Dennis from Chapter 5, “Elegy Hotel,” who now works as Dan’s supervisor. Dan apologizes if he’s oversharing, but he wants to emphasize the transformation he has undergone since waking up. He references his strange dreams while sick which match the description of the place Jun explored in Chapter 3, “Through the Garden of Memory.” He then writes specific notes to the different members of his cul-de-sac, recalling what he remembers about them and mourning their losses.
He reflects on his desire for connectivity as he relays a recent midnight visit to the grocery store, where he saw the other members of the community who were all shopping late to avoid overwhelming crowds. He bought the materials for a cookout on instinct. He reiterates his invitation and describes his goal for overcoming his grief cycle, expressing hope at future relationships.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Melancholy Nights in a Tokyo Virtual Café”
Content Warning: This chapter includes depictions of depression and death by suicide.
In the novel’s first third-person perspective chapter, Akira walks through Tokyo’s virtual reality district. It features different scenes from around the world and a variety of wares for purchase. He lingers even after most of the shops close. He’s an out-of-place man with no steady job and no home. His mother, who lives in a sheltered mountain village, doesn’t know of his plight.
He stays at a virtual café, the owner of which is a woman named Ms. Takahashi, who is sympathetic to his difficult circumstance. Most people, grappling with grief and the trauma of the plague, turn away from reality to virtual reality. One day, Akira gets a message from another virtual reality user, whose avatar is a Pegasus. Her name is Yoshiko. She invites Akira to her private island, which is filled with trinkets representing her memories. He sees a picture of her true self and recognizes her as a street vendor. They chat, and he becomes attracted to her. She has a bedridden daughter whose plague symptoms include an unspecified mental health condition implied to be like psychosis.
Akira responds to a job advertisement for a printing press operator. He follows the directions, thinking of Yoshiko and her confessions about how much she’s struggling with her daughter. At the job site, Akira meets an old man named Seiji, who is associated with the Sun Wave Society, a religious group that believes the plague is a chance to reset society. Akira makes pamphlets for Seiji and then distributes them around the city. Most people are dismissive of him, and police escort him away from certain areas. He stops by the market to watch Yoshiko break down her stall for the night, imagining what it would be like to talk to her. They meet in virtual reality, where Akira sees an artificial intelligence recreation of Yoshiko’s daughter. Yoshiko shares her complaints about the model, as well as her increasingly nihilistic view of her own life.
At the printing press, Akira works with renewed vigor so that he can see Yoshiko, as he’s worried about her. He sees a family picture on Seiji’s wall and the two talk about the sarin gas attacks of 1995. Akira realizes that Yoshiko is Seiji’s daughter and spends several days trying to get more information to confirm his belief. When one night Akira asks Yoshiko to meet up in person, she rejects the suggestion. He goes to the market the next day to find her, but she’s not in her usual place. He buys gifts for her and her daughter and eventually returns to the virtual reality café. Ms. Takahashi chats with him, playing with her purple crystal necklace. The two talk about the situation with Yoshiko, and Ms. Takahashi compares it to her own life and the sudden loss of her mother.
Akira enters virtual reality and finds a message from Yoshiko. He then finds an artificial reality recording of her, which answers his questions about Seiji and her resentment about her daughter’s condition. He stays connected to virtual reality for hours, waiting for Yoshiko to log on. When he leaves, he sees a newspaper article about suicide groups with a picture of Yoshiko and her daughter. He becomes withdrawn, working at the printing press but not speaking. Seiji tries to connect with him, worried about his mental health. Akira packs his bags and leaves, placing flowers at Yoshiko’s apartment. Giving his worldly belongings to a man without a home, he travels to the cemetery that houses Yoshiko and her child’s remains. After visiting their gravesite, he resolves to call his mother and ask for help.
Chapters 10-11 Analysis
Following the introduction of a plague cure, the characters in these two chapters search for connection in a world that is increasingly despondent. In Chapter 10, “The Used-To-Be Party,” the narrator reaches out electronically as he grapples with his conflicting introverted instincts and his new need for connection. By shielding himself through email, he prevents the pain of a rejection as well as the discomfort of someone’s physical presence. Similarly, Akira seeks connectivity through technology, being a shy man in real life but able to create a persona in his virtual life. He interacts with a woman he never would have in the real world, and although their story ends in tragedy, it gives him the bravery to seek true connections with his family. Interestingly, Akira’s story is told through the third person and Dan’s is told through an email. Both formats help convey the characters’ sense of alienation. Their efforts to find others reflect the theme of The Importance of Building Community, emphasizing that a community is built, not given—something that the characters realize only after community has been taken away.
In addition, both stories focus on the difficulty of coping, adjusting to survival in a world that no longer reflects what once was. Dan and his fellow coma survivors become overwhelmed with the amount of change they experience and the loss of their loved ones. They can’t heal because unfamiliarity compounds their grief, causing them to cling to habits and rituals that cycle around their loved ones. Their jobs, routines, and memories are disrupted by a plague that stole their families and years from their lives. Dan’s choice to reach out to his neighbors and plan a party is a complete disruption from his routine, showing his efforts to commit to healing. Akira’s mourning is altered by his own health. He became a displaced adult whose existence the plague dramatically shifted. Although he lost his father, he didn’t get sick himself and has family that stayed safe. The result is a feeling of discontent and loneliness, reinforced by his lack of physical space to call his own. His mourning is for both the people lost and the future interrupted, reflecting the difficulty of finding a place to belong.
In a life post-cure, all of society is experiencing post-traumatic stress, as evident in the disruption of routines, the clinging to traditions, and the systematic dysfunction that many people fail to survive. These stories provide the hopeless snapshot that the narrative reveals is resolved through the events of Chapter 9, “Gallery A Century, A Cry A Millennium.” Although the knowledge that the existing problems will be resolved is comforting, it doesn’t detract from how emotional and visceral the problems are. In providing this context, the author shows the disconnect between science and the present. Discoveries take time to be practically implemented, leaving many people in a precarious state. Nagamatsu provides space to mourn those whom such changes fail to serve in time, while simultaneously acknowledging the inherent optimism of scientific advancement. The narrative again presents the invitation for readers to reflect on life in the time after the COVID-19 outbreak.
Unlock all 60 pages of this Study Guide
Get in-depth, chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis from our literary experts.
- Grasp challenging concepts with clear, comprehensive explanations
- Revisit key plot points and ideas without rereading the book
- Share impressive insights in classes and book clubs