“GOD HAS CALLED HIM TO HEAVEN,” the headlines read the day after Robert’s death, a death that would become “the defining event of his (Ives) middle-aged life. Even though the entire story of the novel flows to and from that bloody moment, the story beneath the surface, Ives’ resurrection from the grave of grief, revolves around a mystical vision of “four winds.” This puzzling experience has left Ives at a loss for words. “...I …showed first 75 words of 1278 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1278 total…taking him away, and all others who were good in this world, off into His heaven, with its four mysterious winds, where they would be joined unto Him and all that is good forever and ever, without end, (Hijuelos, 248) These “four mysterious winds” are representing the four corners of the earth--all of creation--and they point to the end of time, which is a symbol of God’s soveriegnty over all of us, forever and ever.