"For a second, the name didn't mean anything. Then I remembered. Clothesline gossip, whispers in the grocery store or the butcher shop that hushed whenever his mother came in" (Chapter 1, p. 8).

"I dropped out of school the day we pawned Ma's wedding ring" (Chapter 2, p. 26).

"By day, the dance academy was a dump. I walked past it twice before the shoeshine boy finally put me right. I'd been looking for something more glamorous than a plain-Jane second-story walk-up over a butcher shop" (Chapter 3, p. 31).

"I stared at the 10 in the corner of the bill. I'd never held ten dollars all at once in my life" (Chapter 6, p. 91).

"Manny became one of my fish. So did Tom" (Chapter 9, p. 136).

"I prayed to Lucia and Agatha for strength. It didn't help. Maybe I was too bad of a girl already" (Chapter 10, p. 166).

"'The Japs,' she said. 'It's the Japs...