Motherless Brooklyn: Auto Body Summary & Analysis

It is one in the morning when Lionel steps out of a cab in front of the Zendo, checking to make sure he has not been followed. He feels like Minna for a brief moment—but then begins to feel like a “coloring-book outline of a man.” Lionel enters the nearby townhouse to confront the night doorman, Dirk, and ask him about the giant. The doorman confirms that the giant coerced him into getting Lionel’s attention—but that he had never seen him before the previous night.

Lionel goes to the Zendo and uses Kimmery’s key to get inside. Lionel ascends the stairs to the Roshi’s private headquarters and enters the spare bedroom. Gerard is sitting on a flat mattress on the floor, meditating. Lionel, reminded of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now! begins to perform tics, crying “Thehorrorthehorror.” Gerard opens his eyes and greets Lionel by his full name. Lionel asks if they are alone in the building; Gerard confirms that they are. Lionel closes the bedroom door and begins asking Gerard about his “hired killer.” Gerard warns Lionel not to speak without thinking—though he admits he knows that Lionel has “difficulties in that area.”

Lionel says he knows about 1030 Park, Fujisaki, and the giant. Gerard, however, is nonplussed. Gerard tells Lionel that Lionel is just as ignorant as Frank was. Gerard laments that Frank kept Lionel and the other Minna Men “charmed and flattered” yet ultimately in the dark. Frank, Gerard reveals, had a hand in managing the building at 1030 Park—a dazzling amount of money, he says, was involved. Lionel repeats Loomis’s assertion that the residents of 1030 Park have second homes on islands. Gerard smiles and states that for every Buddhist, Japan is a second home. 

Lionel asks Gerard what his role in all this is. Gerard smiles and says that Frank never exposed him to any danger—Gerard has never met anyone from Fujisaki. Ullman, Gerard says, was Frank’s partner in “fleecing” the Japanese. Gerard’s role, he says, was providing labor for the building in exchange for payment on the mortgage on the Zendo. Fujisaki, Lionel surmises, sicced the giant on Frank and Ullman—but Lionel cannot believe that the giant just happened to use the Zendo as his meeting-place the night before. Gerard replies that the Fujisaki Corporation is powerful—yet the violence they use to stay powerful is done at a distance, and thus, they have employed the giant as a hitman.

Gerard urges Lionel to tell Tony to stay out of the business related to Fujisaki. Lionel feels a surge of care for Tony, who he realizes has placed himself in great danger in his efforts to emulate Frank. Lionel asks how Matricardi and Rockaforte play into everything. Gerard asks if Lionel remembers when Frank had to go “upstate,” implying that Frank angered them and left Brooklyn to escape their retribution. Gerard urges Lionel to avoid the “dangerous” Clients. Lionel asks if anyone else at the Zendo is involved in Gerard’s shady business, but Gerard replies that Kimmery is safe and uninvolved. Wary of asking any more questions, Lionel thanks Gerard and takes his leave of the Zendo, taking the “Tourettic” subway back to Brooklyn.

It is nearly 2:30 in the morning when Lionel approaches the L&L storefront from the opposite side of the street. As Lionel peers across the road, he sees that Tony and Danny are inside. He decides to watch them for a while—he trusts neither of them. Lionel is surprised when he sees a female bartender he knows from a nearby tavern going inside L&L. A moment later, Danny emerges with her. They get into an L&L car, start the engine, and drive away. Lionel watches as Tony hurriedly takes out some papers from a drawer and spreads them across the counter—Tony clearly doesn’t trust Danny either. As Lionel looks down the block, he sees the “hulking shadow” of the giant move in a parked car outside the L&L storefront. Lionel and the giant are both staking the place out.

Lionel watches Tony roots through drawers in a desk, frustratedly moving from pile of paper to pile of paper. The giant snacks on something as Tony moves to the file cabinets. Lionel knows he needs to hide—and decides to take cover in one of the spare L&L cars parked on the block. Just as he’s about to make his way to one, Danny’s car comes back down the block. Danny parks, gets out alone, and returns to the L&L storefront. Lionel watches Tony and Danny converse, but his mind begins to wander as he thinks about the giant, food, and Kimmery. After a few moments, Tony leaves the storefront—but he returns moments later with a plastic shopping bag, which he places in the front seat of one of the cars.

Lionel decides to go to Zeod’s himself for a sandwich. As he walks in, Zeod greets him and remarks that he and Tony must be working on “something important” for Frank to be out so late. Lionel asks Zeod to tell him what Tony bought, and Zeod tells Lionel that Tony bought a “whole picnic”—beer, four sandwiches, Cokes, and a carton of cigarettes. Zeod notes that Tony looked very serious. Lionel asks what kind of sandwiches Tony ordered, and as Zeod describes them, Lionel grows hungry. He feels compelled to get the exact same four sandwiches as Tony—and tells Zeod to make them for him. After Zeod hands Lionel the sandwiches, Lionel asks Zeod not to mention that he was in here to anyone else.

Lionel walks back toward L&L and ducks into one of the free cars. He slumps down in his seat and begins eating one of the sandwiches from Zeod’s. He feels that he’s on a real stakeout—but he doesn’t know what he’s waiting to see happen. Lionel lets the many unanswered questions about the events of the last couple days run through his brain as he eats sandwiches and drinks Coke to stay awake until 4:30 in the morning.

His brain addled by sleep and wordplay, Lionel decides to use his phone to call L&L. Danny answers, and Lionel asks for Tony. Tony is angry at Lionel for leaving him alone with Seminole—but Lionel tries to warn Tony that he’s in danger. Tony, however, meanly calls Lionel a “freakshow” and dismisses him. Lionel again warns Tony to hide from Fujisaki—he says that the two of them are a family and need to look out for each other. Tony hangs up on Lionel.

Long after the sun is up, Tony comes out of L&L and gets into a Pontiac—the car he dropped the Zeod’s bag in earlier. Lionel realizes it is nearly half past seven in the morning. As Tony pulls onto the road, followed by the giant, Lionel follows suit, tailing them both at a safe distance. Lionel follows the two cars to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, where they head north. Near the airport, Tony tries to lose the giant’s tail—but the giant and Lionel both manage to pull back across the highway and follow him north. Lionel realizes that they are headed out of town.

Lionel enjoys the soothing highway driving as he follows Tony and the giant through New York and into Connecticut. When Tony pulls off to a rest stop, the giant’s car keeps on going. Lionel realizes that the giant has intuited where Tony is headed and is now going there himself. Lionel believes they are all headed for the “place of peace”—the Zen retreat in Maine. After stopping for gas, a bathroom break, and a map, Lionel gets back on the road. He decides to use his cell phone to call Kimmery. He tells her that he’s headed to Maine—he is pursuing the giant. Kimmery says it’s creepy that Lionel took her keys, so Lionel apologizes and promises to bring them back. He tells Kimmery he misses her, but Kimmery doesn’t return the sentiment.

When Lionel tells Kimmery that he’s headed for Yoshii’s, and that he would love to go with her some time, but Kimmery says that she needs to get off the phone. Lionel asks her to stay on the line. She tells Lionel she thinks he’s using the investigation as a way to stave off his sadness and guilt about Frank’s death—she doesn’t think he’s a real detective. Lionel tells her that real detectives aren’t like they’re depicted in books and movies. The conversation turns jocular, and Kimmery begins telling Lionel a koan—a Buddhist joke with no punchline.

Kimmery tells Lionel that Roshi Jerry always says guilt is selfish. Lionel asks Kimmery not to quote Gerard to him on the subject of guilt. Kimmery asks if Roshi could really be guilty of something, and Lionel says that he’s headed to Maine to find out. Kimmery urges Lionel to be careful. Lionel reminds Kimmery of her promise not to go to the Zendo.

Lionel drives through Boston, where the traffic and dense buildings make him nervous. To soothe himself, he calls Kimmery again. She is less enthusiastic on this call and tells him that he’s calling her too much—she doesn’t want anything “crazy” in her life right now, she says, having just gotten out of a relationship. Lionel tells Kimmery that he’s different from other men—but Kimmery maintains that while she likes Lionel, she finds him too intense. Lionel says Kimmery is confusing him. She hangs up the phone. Lionel continues calling her back again and again until she asks him to stop. Even then, however, he can’t stop pressing the redial button—he is his “syndrome’s dupe” once more.

Unable to get through to Kimmery, Lionel begins dialing the numbers of the Essrogs in Brooklyn he’s memorized over the years. He is unable to say anything but “Essrog, Essrog, Essrog” into the phone. Lionel feels he lives his whole life wound tight—but unlike an airbag, which explodes and expands, he is repacked each time he gives in, becoming almost instantly ready to explode—or to perform a tic—again. At last, Lionel’s “dialing tics” stop and he focuses his attention on the remainder of the drive to Maine. As he crosses the Maine state line and drives through small, touristy villages, he searches for the “place of peace.”

At last, Lionel arrives in a town called Musconguspoint Station—a ferry to Muscongus Island makes the rounds twice a day, and Yoshii’s, the Buddhist retreat, is on a hill near the ferry landing. Some cheesy signs advertise Yoshii’s as “Maine’s only Thai and Sushi Oceanfood Emporium.” Lionel parks in the restaurant lot—there is no sign of Tony’s car, or the giant’s. He gets out and urinates off the edge of a cliff looking down over the sea, performing tics and shouting wildly. He wonders if he is the first Essrog to set foot in Maine.

Back in the parking lot, Lionel checks to see if anyone heard his outburst—but there is no one nearby except for some men on the docks below. Lionel walks down and gets the attention of one of the men, who is helping a small crew unload heavy-looking cartons from a boat. Lionel, excited by the ocean air, begins to perform tics. He asks if it’s a cold day to be out, and the boatman explains that since urchin season runs from October through March (the coldest months of the year), a day like today is relatively easy. Lionel asks if the boatman knows anything about the restaurant up the hill. The man tells Lionel to talk to someone called Mr. Foible and nods toward a shack at the end of the dock—Foible, the boatman says, is the one who deals with the Japanese.

Lionel enters the shack and encounters Mr. Foible, an older man with a drunk’s face. Lionel extends a $20 bill toward Foible and asks about the restaurant up the hill, inquiring as to who owns it. Foible asks why Lionel wants to know, but Lionel says he wants to buy it. Foible replies that Lionel could never get it away from its owners. Lionel asks what would happen if he made the owners “an offer they couldn’t refuse.” Foible squints at Lionel suspiciously and asks if he’s a Scientologist. Lionel says he isn’t. Foible is relieved—Scientologists, he says, bought an old hotel on Muscongus Island—he prefers the Japanese to the scientologists.

Foible points to the $20 bill. He tells Lionel that when the Japanese ask favors, the smallest bill they pull out of their wallets is a hundred. Foible recalls the days when the Japanese mob, or Yakuza, used to pay his baymen off for a haul of uni, or urchin eggs: the national food of Japan and “the whole story” around these parts lately. Japanese law states that diving for urchin is illegal—only hand-raking is allowed. Maine, however, has some of the best urchin in the world—and no laws against diving for them. The Japanese have come to bid on loads, pay in cash, and trade in unbelievable amounts for the precious seafood. The people who own the restaurant, Fujisaki, bought Foible out years ago—now, he sells to them exclusively and doesn’t have to deal with the Yakuza.

Excited and intrigued, Lionel begins performing tics as he asks more about Fujisaki. Foible observes that Lionel seems to have Tourette’s. Lionel calms himself and asks if the Fujisaki men live here. Foible reports that they come and go around the world in a bunch—they just came in on the ferry, actually, this morning. Lionel asks where Foible’s second boat is. Foible says a couple of guys asked to rent it an hour ago. Lionel asks if one of the men was big. “Biggest I ever saw,” replies Foible.

Lionel realizes that Tony and the giant have gotten to Maine first. He drives to the ferry landing where he spots their two cars in a small parking lot encircled by a coin-fed gate. On the outside of the one-way exit is a strip of flexible spikes and a sign warning about tire damage. Lionel wonders what Tony and the giant are doing out on the boat. Lionel feels his beeper buzz. He returns to his car, gets out the cell phone, and calls the number—he recognizes it as Matricardi’s. Matricardi asks if Lionel has gotten what they want. Lionel says he’s working on it.

Inside the sushi restaurant, Lionel is greeted by a hostess in a Japanese robe. Lionel is the only customer so far, and he requests a table near the windows overlooking the water. He is shocked when his waitress emerges from the kitchen—it is Julia, who has shaved her head. She, too, wears a Japanese robe. She brings Lionel a menu and says that she doesn’t want to know what he’s doing here. He quietly explains that he followed Tony and Minna’s killer, the giant, to Maine. Julia tells Lionel to get lost, but he asks to talk to her. She tells him to talk to himself.

Julia asks where Tony is. Lionel says he’s on the boat with the giant. Julia says she’s waiting here for Tony—but she can’t wait much longer. Lionel says he thinks Tony is trying to get to Fujisaki before they get to him. Julia flinches and warns Lionel not to say that name around here. Lionel asks Julia if she’s afraid of Fujisaki or of the clients. Julia says that she’s not hiding from the Italians. Lionel asks who is, but Julia calls him a freak and refuses to answer. Lionel asks to order some uni. Julia tells Lionel that he wouldn’t like it. The door opens—the Fujisaki Corporation walks into the dining room and sits at a large table.

There are six Fujisaki men in sleek, fitted suits and cool sunglasses—to Lionel, they embody the image that the Minna Men always “strained” for but never achieved. Overwhelmed, Lionel performs a tic: “I scream for ur-chin!” Embarrassed, Julia quickly scrambles to fetch Lionel his lunch. A few members of the Fujisaki corporation look at Lionel, but mostly they are uninterested in him. Lionel watches as Julia takes their order—he realizes that these men are the same men he saw dressed as monks at the Yorkville Zendo, their saggy flesh and tufts of underarm hair now hidden beneath expensive suits.

Julia brings Lionel a plate of uni garnished with wasabi and pickled ginger—as well as a bowl of coconut soup, something she says that he will actually like. Lionel samples the uni, enjoying the sharp and strange explosion of flavors—but when he eats too much spicy wasabi, he makes a noise which draws the Fujisaki Corporation’s attention again. Lionel turns to the soup and feels comforted by the warm broth. Julia brings Lionel his check. He sees that she has scrawled a message at the bottom: “THE FOOD IS ON THE HOUSE. MEET ME AT FRIENDSHIP HEAD LIGHTHOUSE TWO-THIRTY. GET OUT OF HERE!!!”

As Lionel walks out of the restaurant, one of the Fujisaki men grabs his arm and asks him if he liked the food. Lionel looks at the man—it is the same man who, as a monk, paddled him for shouting during the lecture. The man is drunk, but still recognizes Lionel as “Jerry-Roshi’s unruly student.” The man claps Lionel on the shoulder and suggests he come to the retreat to unwind. Lionel claps the man back—and he’s then compelled to clap each of the men on the back. The men poke Lionel back. Lionel begins performing tics wildly, calling out “Monk, monk, stooge!” in place of duck, duck, goose. The paddle-wielder tells Lionel it’s time for him to leave. “Eat me Fujisaki!” Lionel screams as he heads out the door.

When Lionel emerges, he sees that the second boat has returned to the dock. He heads down there, where he spots something moving in the parking lot. As Lionel gets closer, he sees the giant standing between his own car and Tony’s, reading papers from a manila folder. Clearly dissatisfied with what he’s reading, the giant tears up the papers and hurls them into the bay. The giant pulls out a wallet, removes paper money from it, and hurls the wallet into the water too. The giant turns around and spots Lionel. Lionel realizes that the giant has killed Tony. Lionel runs away uphill—but the giant gets into his car and tails him.

Lionel gets into his car just as the giant catches up with him—it seems that the giant wants to push Lionel off the cliff with his car, but Lionel reverses out of his path. In his rearview, Lionel can see that the giant has a gun. Minna and now Tony, Lionel knows, died quietly—he believes that he is set to die more noisily. Lionel, in his car, leads the giant on a wild goose chase toward the ferry’s parking area. He smashes through the gate at the entrance toward Tony’s car, desperate to get his hands on Tony’s gun. The giant is too close, though, and Lionel decides to take a chance and drive over the spikes at the exit.

Lionel brakes over the spikes and comes to a halt—the giant rear-ends him, and Lionel watches as the giant’s airbag inflates. He hears the giant’s gun go off. The giant’s windshield splinters. Lionel reverses, plowing into the driver’s side of the giant’s car and pushing it backward into the spikes.  Lionel senses no movement from inside the car—he can tell that the giant is unconscious beneath his airbag. Lionel’s Tourette’s brain, however, compels him to even out the job. He moves forward and into position, then reverses into the passenger side of the giant’s car.

Lionel’s car is wrecked, so he switches his belongings into Tony’s Pontiac. The keys are in the ignition, and he drives it out of the lot toward Friendship Head, an outcropping 12 miles away. Lionel parks the car and takes stock of his injuries—he is tired, cold, and has a bit of whiplash, but he is all right. He is early to meet Julia, so he calls the local police and tells them about the scene at the Muscongus Island ferry parking lot. He tells the police that they’ll find the wallet belonging to the man the giant killed in the water nearby. Lionel wonders to himself if guilt is “a species of Tourette’s”—like Tourette’s, it seeks to infiltrate everything and to control its bearer completely.

Lionel calls The Clients and tells Matricardi that Tony is dead. He tells The Clients that he has one piece of information for them—in exchange for it, he wants L&L’s dealings with them done. He tells Matricardi that Gerard Minna is living in the Yorkville Zendo, and that Gerard is responsible for Frank’s death. Matricardi says this information is of interest to him and Rockaforte—and that they will respect his wishes. Lionel considers what he knows about guilt—but he concludes that when it comes to vengeance, he still has a lot of thinking to do.