Pages 1-74

The book starts with an intense introduction which I think is my favorite so far. We begin with the main character, Linoel, describing his tourette's syndrome:
"My Adam's apple bobbing, jaw muscle beating like a miniature heart under my cheek, the noise suppressed, the words escaping silently, mere ghosts of themselves, husks empty of breath and tone. In this diminished form the words rush out of the cornucopia of my brain to course over the surface of the world, tickling reality like fingers on piano keys."
Lethem has written vividly throughout the story so far and really creates the scene inside your head. I've noticed that Lethem presents the characters tourette's as a disability but also a blessing. In the very first passage of the book Lethem uses both negative and positive words to describe his tourette's. Lethem describes the words Lionel speaks due to his tourette's as mere ghosts of words, empty and suppressed. Yet, when they reach the worlds surface they tickle reality like the fingers on piano keys.

The book begins with the main character Linoel and his partner Gilbert in a stake out in front of a hotel. They do not know what they're looking for , just that they're looking. They sit inside their Lincoln waiting for their boss Minna while eating food. While they're waiting we get an understanding on how Linoel deals with his Tourette's such as crying out words and tapping consistently. Soon Minna shows up and goes inside the hotel. When Minna leaves Gilbert and Linoel have been told to follow Minna in the car. In heavy Brooklyn traffic Gilbert loses Minna and after searching they find him in a trash can badly stabbed. The first chapter ends with Linoel and Gilbert hearing that Minna didn't make it. The only clue as to who did it was the punchline of a joke and the name Irving.
The next chapter goes back into time when Linoel was 13 and living in St. Vincents Home for Boys and did not know of his condition yet. Linoel meets Minna when he calls for four white boys to help him in his business. The others were Tony, Gilbert, and Danny. The boys do a series of small moving jobs for Minna and get paid 20 bucks and some beer. The boys don't form a very tight relationship but respect each other and look out for each other. As Linoel goes through puberty he starts to realize this he can no longer control his tics and begins to be called the 'human freak show.'

Linoel and the other boys do not know who their parents are and Minna continually gives off hints that he knows and could "present" them too the boys at any time. This thought is more of a threat to the boys than a gift, because their parents could not be what the other boys hoped for. The oldest, Tony, has this idea that his Italian family will one day pick him up and drive him away. Minna instead tells him that he looks Greek or Puerto Rican and says that any of the unwed teenage girls could be his mother. This scares most of the boys. Minna tells Linoal that Essrog is such a rare name that Linoel should look it up in the phone book, he does and finds three listings.

I feel that Linoel is ashamed of his tourette's yet he believes that his disease shows him a lot about other people. On page 43 Linoel describes "Tourette's teaches you what people will ignore and forget, teaches you to see the reality-knitting mechanism people employ to tuck away and the intolerable, the incongruous, the disruptive - it teaches you this because you're the one lobbing the intolerable, incongruous, and disruptive their way."