Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

A month after moving in with Sheri, Anatole bought a second-hand bookstore. It had been his dream since his days overseas. He had sold some of his GI long-johns to the Japanese who were desperate for warm clothing and had made quite a killing. He bought out an old Italian junk dealer for $300, with the caveat that he'd move all the junk out. The year, 1946, was a perfect time to open a bookstore. People were hungry for books—many had missed reading them during the war years. Books provided people with identities and the opportunities to live beyond their mundane lives. People not only revered the books they read, they became them.

In his favorite authors, Anatole felt he had inherited a new set of uncles—but uncles of rather questionable backgrounds. They were scandalous and exciting and the...