This section deals with Charlie's protracted efforts to pay Rinaldo Cantabile the $450 Rinaldo claims he owes him. Of course, Bellow seldom creates anything simple, so what should be a simple gesture of handing the hoodlum a check becomes a daylong adventure filled with suspense and many delightful diversions. To understand Rinaldo, one must understand something of his lineage. He represents the current generation of what was once a mid-level Chicago crime family that, owing to the folly of a recent ancestor, has fallen into condition of permanent humiliation. Back in the 1940s, Rinaldo's cousin, Ralph "Moochy" Cantabile, who was a Chicago cop, lost his gun to a couple of teenage punks. The kids made him crawl, eat filth off the floor and perform other humiliating acts before a crowd.....
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 2,205 words. This
study guide contains 30,872 words (approx. 103 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our Humboldt's Gift Access Pass.
