"Time's story of Lester's stock fight depicted an operator who used any means short of crime to win votes: cash, cajolery, girls, threats, financial squeezes, and if necessary, his fists; an opposing lawyer at a rough meeting had called him a dirty name and Lester had knocked him unconscious." (Chapter 1, pg. 17)

"The banker held his dignity, but he too was laughing. 'Mistuh Ot-loss, you have done business before in the Caribbe-an?'" (Chapter 1, pg. 19)

"Norman [Paperman] was an almost habitual philanderer; but since his heart attack he had behaved himself, mainly for medical reasons." (Chapter 1, pg. 26)

"Signal Mountain. The people here are known as the hill crowd—shop owners, the old plantation families, reetired rich folks, retired military, homo couples, assorted drunks living on trust funds. Mostly white, but there are some leading old colored families." (Chapter 2, pg. 45)

"Henny loved Amerigo, from the moment she first saw...