ATDTDA (11): Same nose, 313-314

[Paul Nightingale]

Leaving Doc to go meet Jimmy Drop, Frank (supposed to be a covert observer,
of course) "skulk[s] along . convinced that everybody he saw was in on the
story ." etc; embarrassed, shamed, he can finally relate to the crowd,
signified here by "the insomniac town", a reference to
commerce-as-unnatural.

Jimmy, like Merle before him, recognises Frank; straightaway he is better
informed than the ignorant Frank: this is the first informant able to give
Frank answers. The extent of his knowledge includes a flashback to Lake aged
"ten or eleven", Frank saying he was at work that day: ". when I got back
they were still at it" (314). Hence, Jimmy's account fills in a ten-year
gap, a kind of closure (so far as it goes) to end the section with. Jimmy
frequently manages to be in the same place at the same time. He offers a
standard against which Deuce can be measured (312); and he offers a kind of
integrity in his relations with Doc, as indeed earlier when he made an
unsuccessful (one might say half-assed) attempt to help Webb.

Webb's attitude to the "management kid" indicates his preference for Deuce.
How far does his "rage" here compare to his response to Lake's excursions to
Silverton (189-190)? Here, Lake says "[i]t wasn't even about me personally"
(314), which begs the question: is it "about [her] personally" when,
subsequently, she chooses Deuce? A realist might say the scene gives her
some belated credibility; although such considerations are too late for
Frank. Earlier, talking to Doc, he asked, rhetorically, why she hadn't
simply killed Webb: it "would've made more sense" (312). Bewildered, as
always, Frank seeks not just knowledge but the kind of psychological realism
that the novel's characterisation shies away from.