Underworld

In 1951, Bronzini spends the summer days walking through the streets. He sees walking as an “art.” He watches children play and remembers his own youth, spent searching for discarded toys in the trash. Bronzini talks with George the Waiter about growing up in the neighborhood and reminisces with him about turning “junk into games” (663). They refer to people who have long since died. Bronzini reads a newspaper in the café, waiting to meet with Father Paulus. In the newspaper, articles report on the Giants’ victory in baseball and the Soviet Union’s successful nuclear bomb test. When Father Paulus arrives, he and Bronzini chat about Matt’s chess lessons. Bronzini believes that Father Paulus should take a more active role in Nick and Matt’s life. They talk about their childhood, when time felt very different. Bronzini returns home to Klara, his wife. Elsewhere, a young Nick Shay is sent by his mother to pick up meat from the butcher. As he walks, he obsesses over the number 13. He wonders whether the number’s supernatural influence might have affected the baseball result. The men in the butcher shop tease Nick about the girl he is dating.