Pages 65-100

OK. So now (Chapter 2) we meet Leonard Bloom. It is still early morning. He thinks a lot about his wife and daughter (wife Molly in bed upstairs, daughter away somewhere but writing him letters), and walks to the shops to buy a kidney for breakfast. (Mmm...kidney...). He gets back home, cooks the kidney, taunts the cat and goes upstairs to ask Molly if she wants anything for breakfast. (She doesn't). Then he smells the kidney burning and goes back downstairs, eats the kidney and then feels "a loosening of his bowels" and so goes to the toilet. Bloom likes to read on the toilet; don't forget to put that in your essay.

Now he is off to a funeral. On the way, I think he does something sneaky and pops into the post office and picks up mail that is supposed to be for someone called Henry Flower. (He has one of Flower's cards, which he gives to the postoffice person as proof of identity. He keeps this card in the band of his hat when not in use). Molly has written this Mr Flower a letter, it sounds like she might be having an affair with him - it's all very personal; she asks him what perfume his wife wears. Certainly if I was married I wouldn't want my wife to be writing letters to someone called Mr Flower; that sounds very suspicious.

I almost didn't realise that this had happened because Bloom was doing all that interior monologue stuff and the post office trick is just popped in there casually as though it doesn't mean much. Later though he does tear up the letter and throw it away; this could indicate he's upset.

I hope I'm right about the names - I don't have the book in front of me and Henry Flower suddenly seems like an unlikely name for an illicit lover.