Women found in him a sort of egotistical Yogi Bear

Women found in him a sort of egotistical Yogi Bear, with brains and a trust fund....

Each was attractive in an overinflated way, to judge from the picture of Val on the wall by Beck's cot.

Val was the only woman on earth who could tolerate prolonged exposure to Beck and vice versa.

...Beck and Val...

More than a roommate to Dan, Beck was also a friend and colleague in Paris. Kafka lets the reader know that Beck will become Dan’s enemy. Dan’s true feelings about Beck are first read in Behind Einstein: “Madame Lagache resented his assaults... She thought he was immodest... That was why I had to win our concierge over immediately.”

In Window Glass, Dan seems to let the reader, what he truely feels about Beck: “I abused Beck as well as I could. It was my way of forgiving him for the casual put-downs he threw my way whenever the four of us were together. I knew he was just being entertaining, but his jibes still hurt.”

When Dan was alone in the kitchen with Margot in Window Glass he shares with her the experiences Beck had had with women and how he had failed every time: “He can't find the girl.His charms don't translate. Here he's just a fat guy with a red face and a terrible accent. In English, Beck was physically acceptable and intellectually intriguing. Women found in him a sort of egotistical Yogi Bear, with brains and a trust fund. But in French his lunkish form overshadowed his wit. The foreign women he'd met during the summer were not impressed. He'd first tried his moves on two Austrian substitute nurses. For a month I'd watched him try to pick up women in bars, on the metro, at the bank where he could flash his dollars. Beck went home and wrote a long letter to Val."

Val seemes to be Beck’s old girlfriend or present girlfriend who wants nothing to do with him: “Valerie did sound like the ideal mate for Beck. Margot thought Val was the only woman on earth who could tolerate prolonged exposure to Beck, and vice versa. Beck and Val were both overachievers intent on being totally independent together. He was the musical premed meteor, she the soccer and Chinese studies star. Each was attractive in an overinflated way, to judge from the picture of Val on the wall by Beck's cot. If she wanted Beck, she'd be here.” Margot and Dan describe Val as an evil woman. Dan says: He [Beck] was going to put off med school and follow her wherever she wanted to live next year. She changed her mind when she got the Fulbright.” But being an evil witch ( “I'll bet she already has a pair of Chinese boys doing her bidding”) as she is described, Dan says:“He sends Val long letters on Mondays and Saturdays. They're so thick he has to tape them closed. Every once in a while he gets a postcard from her with big writing.”

About Beck’s past life, Dan recalls it in Window Glass, while talking t Margot: “We all gave away each other's secrets, but Beck was difficult to rat on. His confessions were so detailed and personal that there was almost nothing left to give away. He'd already informed about his earwax problem, the way he bullied his mom, what occurred or didn't occur each day in his bowels, the tantrums he threw when his dad beat him at tennis, his feverish need to make money, his obsession about women whose breasts were widely separated, and his guilt over Ralph Powers, the boy in his fourth grade class whose lost eye he felt responsible for, though it had never been conclusively established that it had been Beck's jump from the sled that had sent Ralph into a fire hydrant. The only topic about which Beck was stubbornly mute was his brother, Brian”

[Margot, Bou, Dan]