Flamethrowers gets ignited - but will Kushner douse the flames?

Rachel Kushner does a terrific job in her account of a street demonstration turned riot and police attack - the working classes, the students, a grab-bag of leftist and anarchist groups of activists and artists, taking to the streets of Rome in a wild, rainy, frenetic day - all seen from the viewpoint of her naive and somewhat terrified narrator. It's extremely difficult to create such a complex scene and to convey so much action - the greatest writers, Tolstoy, Dickens, e.g., are masters at this but few contemporaries can manage and few have even tried (I have tried, and I tip my hat to Kushner, as she's outdone me I think). Her imagination, memory, or research is exceptional, as she has so many odd touches and strange appearances in this day long event - the group of protestors in torn and ragged clothes, the middle-aged filmmakers havering around a pregnant runaway and coaxing her into saying quotable things for their project, so many more - just a terrific passage in this desultory novel. The section ends on a promising, menacing note - as the narrator is shunned by the other women in the crashpad, squat, or collective - she's not even sure - where she's staying because they assume she's interested in Gianni - narrator seems very blase about the incredible danger she's in as she's clearly at the epicenter of a radical sect that is directly challenging the government and industry - through acts or violence and mayhem (including extensive looting) - she could certainly end up in prison, unless her waning connection to the Valera family can save her. Section ends with Gianni noting that Sandro Valera, her boyfriend who's betrayed her, will "get his." Nice - but then - what? - Kushner swings us back to NYC, where I'm afraid we're due for another long passage of art-world gossip and politics. The contrast is extreme, and that may be Kushner's point after all, but just as she's finally ignited a plot, does she have to douse it? I hope not - but I wonder where she'll bring this, how she will conclude, will there be any long-term perspective as the narrator looks back on this distant period of her life. What has become of her? From what vantage does she tell this tale?