Alvin, meanwhile, was able to talk only about “Allie” and his quest for the world boxing crown as though the lightweight contender native to Newark embodied Alvin’s profoundest conception of the human race. Could the abandonment have been any more complete of the moral code that had cost him his leg? He had disposed of whatever once stood between him and the aspirations of a Shushy Margulis—he had disposed of us.
