Chapter 13

     This is a powerful chapter because Oskar meets his grandfather for the first time but he does not know it is his grandfather.  Oskar thinks it he is a just an older man who is renting a room from his grandmother.  They wouldn't have met even if, when Oskar really needed to talk to his grandmother she wasn't there and the renter was.  The interesting thing is how much Oskar opened up to this man while knowing little about him.  He even plays 5 of his father's last messages for his grandfather, which no one else has heard, even his grandmother, who he confides most in. 
     (Random side note, I think that Oskar and his mother have a strained relationship because they are both trying to protect each other - Oskar by hiding the answering machine messages and his mother by hiding her crying.  I think they should both open up to each other in order to begin to heal together instead of separately.)
     While Oskar confides in the renter he notices a number of similarities between the way the renter acts and looks and the way his father did, such as shrugging shoulders the same way and having the same gap in their teeth.  However, this may seem obvious to us as the readers, Oskar doesn't seem to have picked up on the meaning of these similarities yet. 
     In addition to meeting his grandfather-without-actually-knowing-that's-who-he-is, Oskar tells about the many Mr. or Ms. Black's that he interacts with, spending a particular amount of time on Ruth Black, who lives at the top of the Empire State Building.  The Mr. Black who has been helping him look for the other "Blacks" on his list also helped him conquer part of his fear of being in tall buildings and elevators.  This is quite a remarkable thing to do because it is one of the most terrifying things to Oskar because of the way his father died. 
     I think that Ruth Black will turn out to be quite important because of the amount of time Oskar spends talking about her and the sheer number of pages that her story takes up in the novel.  I'm just not sure what role she is going to play...

     Thank you,

     Olivia