BE groupread 2021-2 Chapter 1 brief summary 152 words

[Joseph Tracy]

Hard to not like Maxine, pointing out to her 2 kids a blossoming pear tree illuminated through NYC streets with a morning beam of light. She's  highly observant of everyone, smart, curious, tough, funny, protective of her children. 
Tarnow (Thorny, her words can be humorously sharp and quickly deflate posturing) also Tarnow Polish Ghetto isolating Jews in WW2. Kids go to Kugelblitz HS. Kugelblitz  named after psychiatrist, rejected disciple of Freud. Also comic play on Kugel (Jewish dish with egg noodles, potatoes,  fat) + blitz.  We will find out her mother is great Jewish cook and her Dad an anti-fascist lefty. 

That Maxine meets  a friend from California, Vyrva McElmo, whose husband’s computer wiz biz is dwelt on enough to feel important. They have come from Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley, NYC’s digital industry .

The reader is seeing some strong contrasts appropriate to NYC, or any real place. On one side of a street, light is reflecting off windows and  shimmers on the other side and on the ground level homeless people are sleeping among trash bags.  Some of the businesses in her former bank building are fanciful- Yenta Expresso dating service, and Dr Ying accupuncture  herb specialist, but these are contrasted with a room recently getting mysterious packages and guarded by men with Uzis, but now padlocked.

It is a challenge to absorb the complexity of Pynchon’s worlds. But within that complexity there is the economy of a master, all facts contributing to  a sense of momentum, the credibility of place and persona, an inner and outer consistency that respects the reader, calls me to full attention, makes me want to understand this curious blend of reality/history, storymaking and  the looming subconscious.  

> On Nov 3, 2021, at 10:29 PM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Pages 13-20 in the Nook edition
> 
> Location NYC, upper West side, that’s to the left of Central Park from 59th
> St to 110th St.
> Time frame: first day of spring, 2001. Tuesday, March 20th.
> 
> Maxine walks her two sons, Otis and Ziggy, to (private) school.
> 
> Backstory of school’s founder, Otto Kugelblitz.
> 
> Meets up there with a friend, Vyrva.
> Maxine agrees to take Vyrva’s daughter, Fiona, later that day while Vyrva
> goes to an appointment.
> 
> Already I like Maxine.
> 
> Maxine runs Tail ‘Em and Nail ‘Em, a small fraud-investigating agency with
> an office in a building that’d been built as a bank.
> 
> She goes there and overhears Daytona, her secretary, on a personal call.
> 
> Starts her work day with phone messages.
> 
> Calls back Trevor, a whistleblower.
> 
> Reminisces about a recurring fraudster, Uncle Dizzy.
> 
> Remembers her last field visit to one of his stores.
> 
> Daytona, the secretary, buzzes her to announce a visitor: Reg.
> --
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