AtD (37) p. 1057 Penance, fidelity, rats in trees, slaughterhouse again

[Mark Kohut]

p 1057

 "to resist all penance at the hands of others"........what a line to describe mutual commitment and fidelity between two!???...........picks up 'penance' motif earlier...........

expresses that a 'relationship' with another means responsibility and inevitable hurts requiring penance?  That seems to be part of the meaning, anyway, here and from earlier uses.  Pynchon, plunderer of all notions, uses this and 'karmic balance' elsewhere, etc. to capture a basic notion?  Basic moral truth? 

 "the dark exceptional fate"...???...reserved for Lake and Deuce alone, now lost. 

Do rats really nest in palm trees? Or is that 'just' another metaphor?  Seems the answer is yes

and, of course, it is also a metaphor, I'm sure: from Answers.com: Roof rats prefer to nest in trees and occasionally in burrows and vegetation.

  "down frozen slaughterhouse alleyways"---that slaughterhouse motif again. 

 A Hebrew Headdress is a caul, according to a Bible Dictionary online with the Book of Isaiah as the source....(Only other Google citation is to this section in ATD!)