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Chapter 1

• Swede Levov is a magical figure in the Jewish neighborhood of Weequahic in Newark, New Jersey.

• He is a gifted athlete with Gentile features; the entire Jewish community is in love with what he stands for as a successful American Jew.

• The author of this story, Nathan Zuckerman, is a childhood friend and ping-pong player with Swede's younger brother, Jerry. Nathan comes excitingly close to being acknowledged by the Swede.

• Nathan reminisces about a story called "The Kid from Tomkinsville" and contemplates whether Swede could encounter the same kind of disaster as the fictional hero.
• Swede's grandfather had come from the old country and became a manufacturer of ladies' gloves in a neighborhood of mixed immigrants starting various businesses.

• Lou Levov, Swede's father, worked in the family tannery and learned everything about making gloves, from the slaughter of animals to the dyeing of skins.

• After family bankruptcy...

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