Chapters 37-40 Summary

Chapter 37 returns to the memoir. Papa proudly moves into his house in 1916, goes to Brooklyn for Easter, and discovers that Prosperine looks like a monkey. When he sees high-strung, beautiful Ignazia, he refuses to be rejected. They marry in Brooklyn in a civil ceremony and take Prosperine home with them to serve as maid. Ignazia does not bleed after sex but swears that she is a virgin. When he beats her anyway, as a lesson, Prosperine threatens to castrate him if he ever hurts her again. Ignazia is not pleased to find herself pregnant, but takes whatever comes. Papa refuses to abandon work to attend his son's birth or to spend money on a doctor. At dawn, he finds Dr. Yates at work. His son is stillborn, but Papa baptizes him. A second baby emerges alive, a red-headed girl with a...