BE CH 3 SUMMARY

[Joseph Tracy]

BLEEDING EDGE CH 3 SUMMARY


When Reg leaves her office Maxine searches for wine in fridge, none there , questions Daytona about it which leads to a semi-friendly tiff, accusations of wineism, therapism, the hard work of a 12 step program, and when Maxi apologizes for whatever it is, Daytona opens up about her break up with her Jamaican husband, who thinks joint custody means who brought ganja? Maxi reminisces about Horst who is unaffected by pot, emotionally stolid and a gifted and consequently loaded predictor of commodities futures (terminally honky in Daytona's jibe). We find out more about Horst and that there is no alimony, Maxine got apartment and Horst got cherry 59 Impala.
Some history of Horst and Maxine unfolds in comic vignettes. Horst was partier but kept partying after they married and that caused breakup. He also had affair with Heidi, which remembering, Maxine wonders if Daytona is more sympathetic listener than her best friend. She met Horst at bar in Chicago; he kept calling, had her do CFE work to stay in touch with her. The jobs ranged from work for a relative on her sixth gold-digging marriage, to a fake Kosher inspection shakedown racket. During romance Horst considers converting to Judaism, but balks at circumcision. 
Attention turns to memories of Maxi-Heidi relationship. again in comic bits. Maxine has come to understand that Heidi sees herself as the princess in the relationship and Maxine as the slightly less attractive wacky sister. We learn of ethnic tension in the Jewish community like the "one between Hochdeutsch and Ashkenazi" which terminates a planned marriage of Heidi , but with a payoff from "the
the Strubels(negotiated by Maxine) for a sum nicely in excess of what they had initially offered to buy Heidi, the little Polish snip, off.
“Galician, actually,” Heidi remarked.....
Heidi, relieved to be single, pursued a career in academia, having recently been given tenure at City College in the pop-culture department.
Later, thinkng how Heidi saw herself as Grace Kelley Maxi insists this would be the Grace Kelly of Rear window and recalls how they once spied on the Deseret, a fictional Gothic building reminiscent of the gothic building in Ghostbusters. Maxi's ruminations move to the Deseret which the friends watch with binoculars, try to sneak into unsuccessfully, creating more interest and suspicion. Later the Deseret makes its pool publicly available for a fee, giving maxi access to pool by back elevator..

Heidi has declined to have anything more to do with the place. “It’s cursed. You notice how early the pool closes, nobody wants to be there at night.”
“Maybe the management don’t want to pay overtime.”
“I heard it’s run by the mob.”
“Which mob exactly, Heidi? And what difference does it make?”
Plenty, as it would turn out.

Thoughts and questions

Maxine is a highly social being in a crowded city and her life is full of human connections. Same with Heidi and several of the characters we meet. Is this partly or intentionally to draw a contrast to her later isolated plunge into the deep web and relations that are simulated avatars of the real? Is it a more general contrast with the movement to a virtual society? Thoughts on that?

How important are the jokey digressions like the funny bit about the fake Kosher inspectors? 

What kinds of forces does the Deseret embody for Maxine, for us, and why is it so prominent in the novel?
Why the poking at internal Jewish ethnic tensions?
Is there really a pop culture department at City College?
The entire chapter is backgound information on the characters and culture. Does it retain interest or weaken the momentum? Is it necessary? Does the comedy carry us through a lull in dramatic action? 
Part of what TP is doing in these early chapters and through much of the novel is giving us NY as home ground.