47 pages • 1 hour read
Robin Sloan, Rodrigo CorralMr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Robin Sloan, Rodrigo CorralFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A 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 29-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 29 Summary: The Pilgrim
One week after making his mysterious discovery, Clay invites everyone—including Deckle—to attend a presentation at Pygmalion. Deckle brings some of the other New York members of the fellowship with him. As well as his roommates and Neel, Clay has invited Kat and, even though they are no longer dating, she attends. Most importantly, both Penumbra and Corvina are in attendance. Clay’s presentation begins with biographical information about Griffo Gerritszoon, information he learned by decoding Manutius’s book. He subsequently announces that the book does not reveal the secret to immortality. This dramatic revelation prompts Corvina to leave but Penumbra urges Clay to continue. Clay describes the printing industry as the internet of its time. There were lots of problems that needed creative solutions and Manutius’s book is, ultimately, a potentially damaging memoir of how he managed to succeed in that business. Thus the book was encrypted so that it wouldn’t destroy its author’s reputation. But, Clay reveals, “Gerritszoon didn’t get the key. Gerritszoon is the key” (274). Examining the Gerritszoon punches through Mat’s magnifying glass, Clay had noticed a series of tiny notches on each of them and the number of notches corresponds to a letter; the key to Manutius’s code was hidden in the Gerritszoon font. Clay further reveals that “When you lay the punches out…in the same order they’d use in a case in a fifteenth-century print shop—you get…a message from Gerritszoon himself”(276), a message to his friend Manutius. Clay then asks everyone present to look around and notice how prevalent the Gerritszoon font is, it’s everywhere and this, Clay argues, shows that “Gerritszoon figured it out: the key to immortality” (276).
Chapter 30 Summary: Fellowship
After his presentation, Clay approaches Kat, who is disappointed that she is no closer to achieving immortality. Clay, on the other hand, is more optimistic and wonders if Gerritszoon’s legacy, the part of him that is immortal, was actually the best part of him. Next, Clay speaks to Penumbra, revealing that Clark Moffat had figured it out. Penumbra is not surprised or disappointed, rather, he is delighted to have learned the truth in his lifetime. Deckle is similarly excited, particularly about Clay’s recovery of the Gerritszoon punches. Clay tells him he will have to buy them from Con-U but Deckle assures him this won’t be a problem. Penumbra asks Deckle to take care of Corvina when he returns to New York—he “has little experience with disappointment” (280)—and Deckle agrees. Clay has one further surprise for the fellowship, one hundred copies of Manutius’s decoded book, in the original Latin. Penumbra’s only regret is that Corvina will probably have his book burned and Clay is able to put his friend’s mind at rest, revealing at last that he made a digital copy of the book when they were in New York. Penumbra has come to the conclusion that, like Manutius in the fifteenth-century, they “are in the Venice of this world” (281). He is excited by the possibility of starting something new, of solving other mysteries and asks Clay: “Are you with me?” (282). A proposition to which Clay readily agrees.
Epilogue Summary
Clay informs us that following the successful decoding of Manutius’s codex vitae, Neel, with Kat’s help, sells his company to Google and sets up a new production company with Mat; their first act of business is to buy the movie rights to The Dragon-Song Chronicles. Kat will use Manutius’s book as the cornerstone for Google’s new lost Book project and she and Clay start dating again. Oliver Grone leaves Pygmalion and gets a job working for the Accession Table. Clay’s roommate, Ashley, turns Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore into a climbing gym that Mat will decorate with details from the old store, including the Founder’s face. In New York, Corvina burns Penumbra’s book and causes outrage among members of the Unbroken Spine; he is forced to resign as First Reader and is replaced by Edgar Deckle—although he will remain the CEO of the Festina Lente Company. Clay and Penumbra set up a small consultancy firm “for companies operating at the intersection of books and technology” (285). They are joined in their work by Rosemary Lapin, Jad from Google and they put Grumble on retainer. Their first job is supplied by Kat. And while Penumbra is reluctant to publish his own book just yet, Clay has published his, passing along the lesson he has learned: “There is no immortality that is not built on friendship and work done with care” (288).
Chapter 29 – Epilogue Analysis
In its final section, the novel resolves the mystery of Manutius’s codex vitae. Clay, by paying close and careful attention, has discovered the key to the code: it was hiding in plain sight. The simplicity of Clay’s solution to this centuries-old puzzle points to the way in which our society can confuse powerful technological resources with creative thinking and advocates for close reading and deep thinking. While some people—notably Corvina and Kat—are disappointed to learn that there is no magic secret to immortality, the fact that Manutius’s book is a memoir reinforces the idea that the kind of immortality the novel is most interested in is not an extension of a person’s lifespan, but rather, the creation of a legacy, so that a person’s life might continue to have influence and relevance even after his or her death. This is certainly the case for Gerritszoon, whose eponymous typeface, Clay points out, “is everywhere around us” (276).
Similarly, Gerritszoon’s coded message to his great friend Manutius echoes another of Sloan’s central themes: the importance of friendship. The message Clay deciphers suggests that his friendship with Manutius “has been the key to everything” (277).Without Manutius’s friendship, he might never have created his legacy. The novel’s epilogue suggests the degree to which Clay and his friends have taken this message to heart. The lives and professional interests of Neel, Kat, Mat and Ashley—a group of people drawn together through their relationship with Clay—become more deeply entwined as they help and support each other in their various ventures. Clay himself teams up with his former employer, Mr. Penumbra, and they continue to investigate and resolve problems at the crux of books and technology. And while Penumbra has not yet published his own book, Clay’s decision to publish a record of what happened will ensure his legacy and, with it, a particular kind of immortality.
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