… King Assembly Agency … An assembly agency consolidates freight and packs it into freight cars for countrywide destinations. In New York, the working platforms for such labor were in the West Forties near the slaughterhouses.
… this frozen center of his body … This figure may be considered a metaphor, a metonymy, a synechdoche, or a blunt symbol.
— XXXVIII —
… impressed his teachers … These teachers knew, in effect, nothing about art, and taught their students from color reproductions of “famous paintings.” The course in art appreciation was taught once a week.
… Provincetown softball games … Some of the players and onlookers became very famous, others simply disappeared or taught at the Art Students League for many years.
… he moved to England … An excellent way to get him offstage.
— XXXIX —
… Talmud, Buddha … These are, of course, not religions.
… her White Robe … The devil, it is said, has many wiles, white robes on well-built women being but one of them. Satan calls this costume “Jerry Falwell’s Breakdown.”
— XL —
… scrub woods and dry grass … Of whatever kind. (This passage sounds like a dream, at any rate.)
… picturesque seaside town … E.g., Carmel, Tiburon, Sausalito: these are not really towns but theme parks representing quaint charm (there used to be a good seafood restaurant in Tiburon).
… is performing oral sex … This is definitely a dream, or an invented dream — makes little difference.
… he begins to cry … It’s about time to reread “The Interpretation of Dreams”: Freud is right even when he’s wrong.
— XLI —
… that performer’s weary shtick … Which shtick is, astonishingly, admired by many, Crown Heights accent included.
… Kamenstein’s, Forest Green … The color was very close to one called North Woods. It somehow breathed depression and despair.
— XLII —
… an orphanage … There is no information as to whether or not the orphanage was run by sadists, but given the era, it seems likely.
… Patton’s Third Army … The Second Armored Division was Patton’s favorite division, called “Hell on Wheels.” Its soldiers wore their unit patches on their left pockets, “close to their hearts.”
… the moment he put a brush to canvas … Many painters love to tell this story about their early beginnings.
… blood and agony and horror … A good argument can be and has been made for the opinion that everyone killed in war is killed in vain, but it’s the dying man’s job to point out that we survive in vain.
— XLIII —
… written by a stranger … His best books were Farsighted, Ghost Talk, Azure Piano, and A Small Hotel. He couldn’t bear to reread any of them.
… He wasn’t much good for anything else … Despite what seemed to be rueful protestations, he didn’t want to be good for anything else.
… doomed to blunder through the shadows of this pervasive twilight … This is, admittedly, a melodramatic phrase.
— XLIV —
… diet and exercise and meditation … As everyone knows, Death is always standing on the corner, sucking on a toothpick and waiting for an assignment.
— XLV —
… a touch of the whore … A deliberately inflammatory phrase.
… he no longer desired his wife … This is a not-uncommon state of affairs.
… Lawton, Oklahoma … Fort Sill had made this grim burg possible.
… “the old homestead,” as the whole family liked to call it … This is not true.
… too-tight sweater … Satan was happy to reveal her nipples to Dad.
… smoking and looking out … She was partial to Pall Malls, which one Jack McCarthy called “the whore’s cigarette.”
… slept in bathtubs or in the car … And sometimes without a pillow.
… If he even knew she’d left … This is an exaggeration. Of course he knew.
— XLVI —
… makes us look anew at literature … This “anew” look seems to occur every publishing season — something like the annual return of the flu.
— XLVII —
… one dump after another … E.g., Far West Cafe, Bejar Saloon, Juan’s Chili Cellar, Hot Pepper Place. All these places served Pearl beer, Jax beer, and Carta Blanca beer, with small bowls of salted green olives on the side.
… a hideously figured shirt … Sometimes known as a “Hawaiian” shirt, it was often referred to in the army as an “AWOL” shirt, and was, fittingly, a magnet for vindictive M.P.’s.
… the Cactus Hotel … Not a bad name for a Southwestern fleabag circa 1950.
… chaotic Sunday look … The barracks looks as if it will never be clean or orderly again.
… hot Meskin ass … The speaker might have said “pussy”; in this context, the words are interchangeable.
… “Fuckin’ A”… this expression was supposedly first used by soldiers of the 1st Army, which patch was a stylized capital A. The expression implies strong agreement.
— XLVIII —
… “Eyetalians”… Few people, save for clusters of yahoos, pronounce the word this way: a triumph for tolerance.
… a faint accent … His accent, like hers, was almost pure New York (see The Oxford Companion to the English Language, p.693–4).
… gray Persian lamb coat … A prized fur in the forties and early fifties, thought to be more fashionable and chic than black fur.
… Black Hand … An “American” term for the Mafia or Cosa Nostra: never used by Italians or Sicilians, a kind of tabloid name.
— XLIX —
… like cultists … And/or those who chat with God.
… smoked a lot of marijuana … E.g., Bangalore Blast, Mexicali Mania, Super Head, etc.
… rebels … The word is used with pronounced irony, of course.
… broccoli-rutabaga casserole … This dish may taste better than it sounds.
… a macramé class … An “adult education” class….
… carrot cake … Her secret ingredient was a pinch of thyme.
… Akina … whose real name was Arlene.
… diligently fake disreputability … This was about the time when the Dom closed and the Electric Circus took its place. It was the beginning of the end of the Lower East Side, now a neighborhood of staggeringly, albeit carefully disguised, bourgeois sensibilities.
— L —
… didn’t understand Los Angeles … Los Angeles cannot be understood.
… sunny, blue Los Angeles day … the sort of day that rapists and mass killers come out to pursue their interests.
… performed fellatio … No dream: the man wore a filthy Deere cap.
… New York was of no help … It didn’t even look as if it could be of help, unlike L.A., which seemed to explode with optimism and gold in the streets.