Summary

The first chapter of Jennifer Egan’s novel opens in New York City, five years after the 1929 American stock market crash. Twelve-year-old Anna Kerrigan accompanied her father – Eddie, a labor union member – to his business appointment (the nature of which Anna did not comprehend) with a man named Dexter Styles, in Brooklyn’s Manhattan Beach neighborhood. While her father and Dexter met, Anna played with Dexter’s eight-year-old daughter, Tabatha, while Tabatha’s younger twin brothers Philip and John-Martin played nearby. Judging from the house’s size and décor, and the caliber of Tabatha’s toys, Anna determined the Styles family to be much wealthier than her own. When Anna and Eddie drove home together, Eddie explained that Dexter was a nightclub owner – confirming Anna’s educated guess that the man “wasn’t in stocks” (11).

In Chapter 2, Anna and Eddie returned home...