The most powerful and unusual chapter in Diaz's In the Distance

The almost unbearable and not really believable but, hey, this is a fable (In the Distance) more or less, saga of Hakan continues as he's arrested by some mid-west sheriff who's bringing him to Ill. to face a murder trial - they still believe he killed several men who attacked a wagon train - that he's a killer rather than a hero, and he's far too incapacitated to defend himself in any way, in fact he's so encumbered that he at times thinks he is guilty, or at least he feels guilt for killing other human beings regardless of circumstances; a deputy, Asa, takes pity on H. and realizes the sheriff is brutal and corrupt and frees Hakan, and they take off for the west, a journey that will keep them apart from civilization for many years. During this time they develop some kind of homoerotic relationship, though Hernan Diaz is a little circumspect on the details - but we do get the picture. Asa is eventually killed by some bounty hunters, and Hakan goes into even deeper isolation, again for many years, living in a system of interlocked caves that he has excavated. Though it's hard to believe his survival is possible, this is maybe the strongest chapter in the novel, as Diaz manages somehow to bring us into the consciousness of a man who is completely apart from all human society, so much so that he forgets what people look like, his language ability, never strong, atrophies, and he has visions and hallucinations. It seems he's made his way almost to the west coast, back near where his American journey began. He has given up his search for his brother, realizing that he would be unable to communicate with him if they were to reunite. I've been a bit confused on the time frame for this novel; I've been posting that it's set in the 1880s or so, but now I think that's when the opening chapter - in which Hakan relays his sage to some fellow shipmates while icebound, and that his arrival in the U.S. (SF) is probably in the 1850s - either way, the story is largely free of time markers and historical events from the world at large, no significant reference, for ex., to the Civil War till near the end: The sense is that the American plains and deserts are a world unto themselves, a place where one could truly vanish.