44 pages • 1 hour read
Jonathan LethemMotherless Brooklyn
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “Interrogation Eyes”
The narrative returns to the hospital just after Frank dies. Gilbert and Lionel bolt, fearing the imminent arrival of the cops, and return to L&L. There, they ponder what few clues they have: the giant who kidnapped Frank and the conversation bits Lionel jotted down, most prominently the name Ullman. Tony, who immediately takes charge, dispatches Gilbert to find out who Ullman is. Lionel reluctantly agrees to break the news to Frank’s wife, Julia.
When Lionel gets to her home, however, Julia already knows and is packing to leave, a pistol on the bed. She wears only a bra and slip. Lionel suspects she has been drinking, as she barely contains her anger at the boys’ ineptitude. Despite this, Lionel vows to find Frank’s killer. In a curious moment, Julia asks Lionel to zip up her dress and, admiring his large hands, invites him to cup her breasts. She is leaving the city, she tells Lionel cryptically, to head to a place of peace.
Detective Lucius Seminole pulls up just as Julia is loading her car. He briefly questions her before she drives off. The detective then questions Lionel about his relationship with the widow. Running out of patience, the detective grabs Lionel by his collar and demands answers about Lionel’s relationship with Frank Minna. Lionel says clearly and cleanly, “I worked for Frank. I miss him. I want to catch his killer as much as you” (115). Detective Seminole then mentions Matricardi and Rockaforte. Lionel denies knowing the names, and Seminole has no choice but to let Lionel go.
Lionel returns to his apartment above the offices of L&L. The phone keeps ringing, but Lionel ignores it. He sorts through what few clues he has, the Zendo itself and the name Ullman. Annoyed by the phone’s incessant ringing, he finally answers. Loomis, a friend of Gilbert’s and an inspector assigned to the city’s sanitation department, tells him that Gilbert has been arrested for the murder of the bookkeeper Ullman. Convinced that Gilbert has been framed but not sure by whom or why, Lionel rushes to the precinct to talk to Loomis. Before they part, Lionel asks Loomis to see if he can track down an address for this Ullman.
When Lionel has no luck at the precinct finding Gilbert, he and Loomis return to L&L and find Danny, but not Tony. The three console each other over the loss of their mentor. Loomis says, “Bow your heads, you turkeys. The guy was like your father” (126). The moment of silence, however, is shattered rudely by Loomis’ massive fart. Lionel heads upstairs to sleep. He puts on Prince, the throbbing beat giving his brain a chance to quiet: “Prince’s music calmed me as much as masturbation or a cheeseburger” (128). The night crawls by. At dawn, he kills the lights and heads to bed.
In a single-page titled “(TOURETTE DREAMS),” Lionel tells us how when he dreams, his tics quiet, and astonished, he leaves himself behind.
Chapter 3 Analysis
In Chapter 3, the reader returns to the unfolding murder mystery. In fact, there are only a few infrequent interruptions of Tourette’s in the narrative voice in this chapter. Lionel’s only real clue is a single name: Ullman, whose connection to Frank is at best conjecture.
This chapter also introduces Frank’s now widow, Julia Minna. Lionel recalls how all the Minna Men had a crush on Frank’s wife. Everything about Frank’s widow is as fetching and alluring as it is mysterious. Lionel recalls how Frank, a notorious womanizer, returned with Julia from his mysterious two-year absence. Lionel tells us that the relationship had long since cooled into a “long, dry stalemate.” […] All that remained of their original passion was a faint crackle of electricity animating their insults” (97). For a time, Julia worked in the L&L office as a kind of secretary, but she did little more than read magazines and make bad coffee.
Julia is a classic femme fatale. She is dressed only in a bra and slip when she greets Lionel at the door. With her introduction comes several unanswered questions, such as how Julia knows of Frank’s death, where she intends to go, and why she has a loaded pistol on her bed. In between angry puffs of a cigarette, she accuses the Minna Men of killing her husband. When Lionel promises he will track down the real killer, Julia casually admits she has been screwing Tony even as she turns and asks Lionel to help her with the zipper of her blouse. The scene is charged with sexual tension, exponentially ramped when Julia lingers over Lionel’s hands and guides his hands to caress her generous breasts. Such narrative twists align with the traditional mystery story.
Lionel, however, closes the chapter not committed to untangling the mystery but to escaping from its implications. The short interlude, “(TOURETTE DREAMS),” is a single sentence that describes how sleep provides Lionel with a break from his tics. The four lines are themselves set in parentheses, further insulating us from the clamor and noise of the novel up to that moment and thus introducing what will become an important element of Lionel’s coming of age: the need for peace.
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By Jonathan Lethem
