Inge Character Analysis

Inge is a Dutch anarcho-feminist and one of the narrator’s former girlfriends. Though the chronology is unclear, it seems this relationship happened between the narrator’s relationships with Bathsheba and Jacqueline. The narrator recalls how they and Inge planted Semex bombs in the men’s restroom of the Louvre as an act of political protest. Despite Inge’s eccentricities (she once insisted they only communicate via carrier pigeon), the narrator stays with her largely because they are enamored by her breasts. As this relationship precedes the narrator’s affair with Louise, the details of it provide the reader with interesting insight into the narrator’s behavior and attitude in past relationships, in particular by highlighting the central role that sex and physical attraction have played.