This exceedingly suspenseful story by Jack Finney is a tale of drive, ambition and the pursuit of quick success taken too far. It also raises an interesting question: At what point does a material object become worth risking your life for? A man climbs out of a window onto the ledge outside his eleventh floor apartment to retrieve a piece of paper. Ironically, what is on the paper is “incomprehensible” to anyone but him, and could readily be replaced with two months of repeated research. Themes: misplaced priorities, risks vs. consequences, determination, fear, desperation, enlightenment.
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