Motherless Brooklyn

The narrative departs from Lionel’s first-person narration. In a clipped and no-nonsense style, the narrative reveals the backstory of the two brothers and their relationship with Julia. This is presumably what Julia imparts to Lionel at the lighthouse. 

Julia grew up outside Boston and was fascinated early on by Buddhism. She visited the Maine retreat center after she dropped out of college and decided to study there. There she met Gerard Minna, who had an interest in Buddhism. The two became lovers. Later, Gerard brought his younger brother, Frank, to the retreat center to protect him from mobsters back in Brooklyn. The brothers had been working as go-betweens, shuttling stolen goods between the mobsters and their clients in swanky suburban Westchester. 

The brothers started skimming until the mobsters ordered a hit on them. This is why Frank disappeared to Maine. As Gerard continued his study in Buddhism, Frank courted Julia. The two returned to Brooklyn, married. When the mobsters’ flunkeys spotted Frank on the Brooklyn streets, Frank saved his skin only by blaming his brother for the skimming and promising to the two mobsters absolute fealty. That began the years of working the streets of Brooklyn for the mob, during which time he recruited the boys from the orphanage.