Open City Characters: Full List & Analysis

Who drives the story

Main characters

Julius

A Nigerian-German psychiatry resident in his final year, half observer, half fugitive from his own past. He walks cities to think, listens brilliantly to strangers, and is forced to confront an accusation — and a self — he cannot remember.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Walker; Part 2: Brussels, and the People History Misplaced; Part 3: The Accusation; Part 4: Losses, and the Long Walk Down
Themes:: The flâneur as evasion; Buried histories; Who gets to be a citizen of the world; Memory and its denials; Listening without helping

Moji

A childhood acquaintance from Lagos who reappears on a Manhattan street and accuses Julius of raping her at a teenage party. Her charge is never resolved, and it reframes everything he narrates.

Appears in:: Part 3: The Accusation
Themes:: Memory and its denials; Listening without helping

Farouq

A Moroccan in Brussels running an internet café and phone card shop, an unsung intellectual steeped in Said and de Man. His line about citizenship punctures Julius's borderless self-image.

Appears in:: Part 2: Brussels, and the People History Misplaced
Themes:: Who gets to be a citizen of the world; Listening without helping

Saidu

A young Liberian asylum seeker Julius visits in a Queens detention center, worn down by a harrowing journey. His deportation offstage is the book's quietest, heaviest defeat.

Appears in:: Part 2: Brussels, and the People History Misplaced; Part 4: Losses, and the Long Walk Down
Themes:: Who gets to be a citizen of the world; Listening without helping

Dr. Saito

Julius's elderly Japanese American former professor, a lover of netsuke and Mahler facing death with regret about living. His memorial marks the passing of Julius's ties to a mentor generation.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Walker; Part 4: Losses, and the Long Walk Down

Nadège

A Haitian graduate student in French literature who dates Julius and leaves for a fellowship in San Francisco. Her parting words name his central flaw: he is not present.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Walker; Part 4: Losses, and the Long Walk Down
Themes:: The flâneur as evasion

Also in the story

Supporting characters

Dr. Maillotte

An elderly Belgian woman whose late husband was a colonial administrator in the Belgian Congo. Her dinner table keeps empire comfortable, photographed, and unexamined.

Appears in:: Part 2: Brussels, and the People History Misplaced
Themes:: Buried histories

Dr. Gupta

Julius's chiropractor, who treats back pain and unspools his own life — an arranged marriage, a son dead of cancer. He turns Julius's spine into an archive.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Walker
Themes:: Memory and its denials; Listening without helping

How they are connected

Key relationships

Moji Julius
A childhood acquaintance from Lagos who reappears on a Manhattan street and accuses Julius of raping her at a teenage party.
Farouq Julius
His line about citizenship punctures Julius's borderless self-image.
Saidu Julius
A young Liberian asylum seeker Julius visits in a Queens detention center, worn down by a harrowing journey.
Dr. Saito Julius
Julius's elderly Japanese American former professor, a lover of netsuke and Mahler facing death with regret about living.
Nadège Julius
A Haitian graduate student in French literature who dates Julius and leaves for a fellowship in San Francisco.
Dr. Gupta Julius
Julius's chiropractor, who treats back pain and unspools his own life — an arranged marriage, a son dead of cancer.

Go deeper

Open City themes & symbols

The flâneur as evasion · Buried histories · Who gets to be a citizen of the world · Memory and its denials

Themes explained

Read the full Open City summary

The full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.

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