In this chapter, Lipsyte makes especially effective use of setting. Aunt Pearl’s apartment is a haven for Alfred. He is tempted to stay there and sleep indefinitely. Through the window, he hears the sometimes sweet, sometimes threatening street sounds of Harlem: children playing, horns honking, a quartet of street singers’ blending harmony, a police siren forcing reality through the joy. The street is especially dangerous for Alfred this night. As he leaves the building, a little boy on the stoop tells him that Major and Sonny are hunting for him. For reasons that even Alfred does not understand, he arrives at Donatelli’s Gym, which recalls Henry’s invitation to Alfred in the first chapter to join him at the gym, as well as Alfred’s apparent contempt for the gym and Henry’s mundane job there.
The gym, too, is a kind of haven; but unlike the cave and the apartment, it is a haven that must be earned. Lipsyte’s imagery is often specific and strong, but never more so than in Alfred’s original ascent to Donatelli’s Gym. Symbolically and literally, Alfred has to climb to get there. The stairs represent a psychological and spiritual climb even more than a physical one. A quivering chill runs up Alfred’s legs; his teeth grind; a ball of ice forms in his gut. The staircase reeks of “stale wine and antiseptic and sweat and urine and liniment.” Hundreds of steps seem to loom before him. This is more than just a staircase, and Alfred knows it.
