Underworld

Nick talks to his friend Juju while watching adults work in the street. The two youngsters realize that the future is approaching fast. Now that he has dropped out of school, Nick is only interested in women. He cannot imagine himself working a nine-to-five job. Three weeks ago, Nick stole a car. He and Juju ride in the stolen car. Juju complains that Nick and his girlfriend, Loretta, have damaged the car’s seats. At the pool hall, they meet George the Waiter. George is not a particularly sociable person but he appreciates the help Nick gave him when he needed to fill out some paperwork for his unemployment. The bartender at the pool hall tells off Nick and Juju for stealing cars. Nick and Juju, together with their friend Vito, talk about what to do with the car. Nick drives it back to where they found it and leaves it there. Meanwhile, Klara Sax meets Rochelle, an old friend. Klara is working as an art teacher, and she talks about Bronzini’s mother, who has moved into their home because she is dying. Rochelle jokingly suggests that Klara have an affair. She laughs at the thought.

Matt has a chess lesson with Bronzini. In the bedroom, Rosemary beads a sweater. She thinks about her husband, Jimmy, who has recently gone missing. In the hallway, a couple loudly argues about cooking. Even though Jimmy told many lies, Rosemary reflects, he was a good husband. He perhaps overestimated his talents as a bookie, and she knows that he wrote down everything on the small pieces of paper that he hid in his clothing. He did not have the perfect memory that many people believed him to have. When he lost $700 at the dry cleaner’s, she remembers, he still made sure to take her out on a date. Even though Rosemary is her name, everyone in the building calls her Rose.

Nick meets up with his friend Remo and the two talk about Nick’s new job. He is working at an ice cream factory. Nick walks Loretta home, and as they pass through the neighborhood they see Juju’s father. He works as a garbage collector. Nick has always admired the ease with which the man lifts the heavy garbage cans. Once he drops Loretta off, he visits the zoo. He is angry, but his thoughts turn to an old associate named Martin Mannion who famously leaped over the barrier at the zoo and tried to fight a buffalo. Later, Juju tells Nick that he has “never seen a dead body” (706). Matt defeats Bronzini at chess.

Nick feels as though he is stuck in the same boring routine, but at least he has some money. Every day, he works. Then he goes to the movies and masturbates while Loretta speaks to him on the telephone. Occasionally, Nick and Juju beat up random people. Nick enjoys fighting. Each time he hits someone, he feels better. Occasionally, he visits George the Waiter (whose real name is George Manza). They talk about a group of men who recently robbed the poker game that is held in the back of the pool hall. Nick is horrified when George shows him the needle he uses to take heroin. Nick leaves, feeling that he has been taught “a lesson in serious things” (727).

Matt prepares for school. He wears a set of dog tags that provide his information. In the case of a nuclear attack, he thinks, the tags will help people to identify his remains. Matt is happy that he no longer plays chess. At school, his teacher is Sister Edgar. She is famous for her violent disciplinary actions against anyone who does not follow religion closely enough. When class ends, Sister Edgar summons Matt. She asks him to describe a magazine that he and his friends had been reading earlier in the day.

During this time, Klara Sax is feeling unsatisfied with her marriage, her domestic situation, and her work. Though taking care of Bronzini’s mother makes her feel useful, she is worried that everything else she does is meaningless.

While taking a break from work, Klara smokes a cigarette on the stairs outside her apartment. She sees a truck deliver soda to a grocery store. One of the delivery drivers, Nick, approaches her and asks for a drag on her cigarette. She obliges him. Several days later, she sees Nick again. He is standing outside her building, smoking, so she opens the door. He walks in, and without saying anything she takes off her clothes. Nick and Klara have sex.

Many of Nick’s friends are involved in crime. At the same time, Bronzini tries to teach his students about the importance of the scientific method. Nick, Juju, and others gate-crash a wake so that Juju can see a dead person. Nick thinks about the recent robbery at the pool hall. The bouncer, Walls, who was not present on the night of the robbery, has been shot and killed. Most evenings, Nick stands outside Klara’s building. He knows that he will be drafted for the Korean War soon and he has convinced himself that nothing in life matters anymore.

Matt gets into a fight over a card game. Nick argues with his mother about the best way to treat Matt’s wounds. To Matt, this is one of the rare times when Nick seems to show him any affection. Meanwhile, Klara returns home with her daughter. Her thoughts are with Nick, even though she does not know his name. All of a sudden, the reality of her domestic life overwhelms her. When she sees Nick a few days later, she invites him into her apartment. Once again, they have sex. This time, Klara senses that something has changed with Nick. He jokes around, covering his head with her stocking and pretending to be a thief. When she asks, he tells her his name. When he says his surname, he knows that she will identify him as Matt’s older brother. Klara does not react. However, she says that he cannot return. Nick leaves, never thinking about “looking back” at Klara.

Rosemary thinks about how her boss, Mr. Imperato, hired a private detective to track down Jimmy but “nothing came of the effort” (754). She and a neighbor named Carmela gossip about another neighbor who claims to have experienced a religious vision. The elderly woman from apartment 607 claims that Saint Anthony came to her. Carmela changes the subject to Nick; she is concerned that Nick and his friends are becoming increasingly delinquent. Rosemary doesn’t care. All she wants is for Nick to work hard, financially support the family, and not give her “a word of complaint” (756). Rosemary resents Carmela for judging her son.

Nick plays pool with George the Waiter. A man named Mario Badalato enters the pool hall. George insists that Mario has ties to the mafia. He hints that Mario might know what happened to Nick’s father, as he is part of the life that exists “under the surface of ordinary things” (761). Several days later, Nick and his friends attack a group of Black men for passing through the neighborhood. When Nick is summoned to talk to Mario, the gangster explains that nothing would have happened to Jimmy that Mario did not know about. He is certain that Jimmy was not murdered.

Bronzini plays cards with old men in a basement. While searching for a bathroom, he spots George the Waiter sitting in a chair, “awake but unresponsive” (769). That night, he and Klara have sex. She feels like a stranger to him but he is certain that they can overcome this issue together.

Nick and his friends spend the hot summer flirting with girls. Sister Edgar memorizes “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe to frighten the children. Nick and George the Waiter play cards. After seeing George’s heroin and his needle, Nick is still “uneasy” about visiting George’s house. After a few hours of play, George tells Nick that he has something to show him. He pulls out a sawed-off shotgun and lays it on the table. Nick is excited and picks up the gun. He poses with it. George assures Nick that it is not loaded. When Nick pulls the trigger, the gun fires. Nick shoots George, whose flailing body is hurled across the room. Nick is certain that he sees George smile as the shot is fired.

Nick and Brian visit a military airbase in Kazakhstan, where they meet Viktor. Viktor has a company named Tchaika that claims to be able to purchase and destroy toxic waste. They take a cargo plane to an unknown destination, where Viktor says that they will be able to watch a nuclear explosion underground. During the flight, Nick and Viktor talk about weapons and waste. As they talk, however, Nick is mostly thinking about his desire to confront Brian. He knows about the affair between Brian and Marian. At an underground bunker, the men eat a large meal.

After dinner, Nick confronts Brian. Even though he is much larger than Brian, he only slaps Brian with an “openhanded” blow. Brian is so unconcerned by Nick that he picks up food from Nick’s plate and, while they are arguing, begins to eat. The confrontation makes Nick feel better. He comforts himself with the thought that someone is keeping Marian happy. When the men watch the nuclear detonation, their thoughts are elsewhere. The following day, Viktor shows them a collection of abnormal fetuses in the “Museum of Misshapens” (799). Then he takes them to a clinic that was located near the site and where many people are suffering from terrible afflictions caused by the proximity to frequent nuclear tests. Nick returns home. His marriage with Marian improves, and they grow closer than they have ever been. Nick lives out his life in relative peace, following a strict recycling regime, attending professional conferences, and listening to his son talk about the internet. When Nick’s mother dies, Matt attends the funeral in Phoenix. Privately, Nick still longs for the “days of disorder” (810).

Sister Edgar searches for Esmeralda in the Wall. She worries that she is wasting her time. She speaks to Ismael, who has recently acquired a television, powered by one of his followers on a stationary exercise bike. To Sister Edgar’s relief, Ismael does not appear to be sick. She wonders whether she wants him to be “deathly ill,” despite all the good work he does. Three weeks pass. Sister Edgar learns that someone raped Esmeralda and “threw her off a roof” (814). The news makes her feel increasingly desperate and disillusioned with the world. In the aftermath of the brutal murder, people claim to have seen Esmeralda in a vision. They say that she appeared on a billboard that advertises Minute Maid. The billboard attracts many people, including Sister Edgar. To Sister Edgar’s shock, she thinks that she sees a glimmer of Esmeralda’s face, lit up by the lights of a passing train. She is so emotionally overwhelmed by the “clearest joy” that she removes her rubber gloves in a hurry and runs to Ismael, hugging him and his friends. She dies a short time later, but her spirit lives on “in cyberspace, not heaven” (825).