Chapter 4

1. What does the chapter show about Jake and Brett’s relationship with each other?

2. Why does Jake say, “What’s happened to me is supposed to be funny”?

3. When Jake goes back to his apartment, he thinks about his wound: “It was a rotten way to be wounded and flying on a joke front like the Italian.” What does the subsequent discussion show about the nature of his wound?

4. What does he mean at the end of the chapter, “This was Brett, that I felt like crying about”? What does he mean when he uses the term “hard boiled”?