Cat's Cradle Chapter 54 Summary

Communists, Nazis, Royalists, Parachutists, and Draft Dodgers

  • John returns to his seat. He looks up his lovely Mona in the book's index, finding as many references to her as the island's current dictator, "Papa" Monzano.
  • He also discovers Mona's father, Nestor Aamons.
  • Nestor's tale is almost as crazy as Bokonon's. He was captured by the Russians and liberated by the Germans during World War II.
  • He was then forced to serve the Germans before being captured by the Chetniks, then the Communist partisans, and then Italian parachutists.
  • Lesson: never try to get anywhere if you're a character in Cat's Cradle.
  • In Sicily, he stole a boat and ended up in Portugal where he met Julian Castle. Castle asked the man to come to San Lorenzo and design a hospital for him.
  • At San Lorenzo, he designed the hospital, married, had Mona, and died.
  • The end.