The Crying of Lot 49

Oedipa returns to the Echo Courts hotel. There the Paranoids are lingering near the pool. Serge is "crackers with grief" (112) and sings a song about Lolita, the Nabokov novel about a man who falls in love with a child. Serge explains to Oedipa that Metzger fled to Nevada so he can get married to Serge's girlfriend. Metzger has signed over all legal responsibilities to a different lawyer at his firm. He is no longer connected to the Inverarity Estate. Oedipa then tries to call Emory Bortz but can reach only his wife. She tells Oedipa to pass by their house for a conversation about Jacobean revenge plays. Oedipa accepts the invitation.

As she drives to the Bortz house, Oedipa notices that the bookstore where she bought a copy of The Courier's Tragedy has burned down. She asks the men in the neighboring store for information, and they explain the owner "set fire to his own store for the insurance" (114). When she reaches Bortz's house, Oedipa sees him delivering a lecture in his yard to a group of students. He speaks about the version of The Courier's Tragedy that contains the reference to