V.

[ckaratnytsky at nypl.org]

Paul Murphy wrote re Esther's nose job in Chap. 4:

>A real plastic surgery dis-aster (Esther: name deriving from 
>Persian 'aster': star). TRP's focus on the Judaism of Schoenmaker and 
>Esther is surely deliberate and troubling in this chapter; the Biblical 
>Esther, heroine of Purim, loses her 'semitic' nose to a German-spouting 
>doctor, star of redemption evanescing irretrievably.
     
     And, to add to this--Esther, lovelorn heroine of New York, loses her 
     idiosyncratic nose, the one that fits her face, as Schoenmaker 
     acknowledges, to this selfsame money-grubbing bounder who bashes it 
     into somebody's ideal of (WASP) beauty, star of romance ascending 
     perceptibly.  Alas, the sad reversal:  the hump on Esther's nose 
     becomes the lump in Schoenmaker's pants.  But, Paul--was Esther, who 
     is now, arguably, lost, a redemptive figure at all?  And--how did 
     once-altruist grafter Schoenmaker, who stared up with boy-wonderment 
     at pilot superhero Godolphin, become--stunningly!--arch-cynicist 
     grifter Schoenmaker?  What happened?  Was it the horror, the horror of 
     Evan Godolphin's face?  Tommy the P doesn't tell us, I don't think, 
     but I may be missing it.  Alas the sad reversal.
     
     Or, maybe that's the point...
     
     Chris