Legs

This is the opening line of the novel. Marcus says this to Packy, Flossie, and Tipper. Jack says something at the end of the novel, when lies dying and tells Marcus, "I really don't think I'm dead." The line is not to be taken literally. It means that Jack lives because he has a hold on the American imagination. The legend of Legs Diamond survives the death of the man. Marcus uses this statement as a touchstone for seeking out all of the many ways Jack Diamond lived, both before and after his death. Even during Jack's lifetime, it was obvious that the myth of Jack "Legs" Diamond had a life of its own, a myth that was built up and cut down by the press and by word of mouth. After Jack's death, the stage shows of Kiki and Alice kept his reputation fresh. And four and a half decades later, with the creation of Legs, Jack lives in the pages of this novel.

Marcus states this right before he decides to go visit Kiki in Manhattan. Marcus, Kiki, and Alice all go through periods during which they consider ending their relationships with Jack. Whether they are fed up with Jack's unsavory mobster tactics, his penchant for sleeping around, or the fact that he is always leaving them alone with one of his henchmen, each character occasionally decides that the relationship is not worth it. Alice and Kiki do actually leave, and at one point Marcus considers himself no longer in Jack's employ. But they all come back. In a sense, they are all "addicted" to Jack, as Marcus says in this passage. Marcus is looking for something more interesting than the life afforded a small town lawyer; Kiki realizes that being Jack's broad will make her more famous and sexy than her dancing ability ever could; Alice is challenged by her Catholic faith and her wedding vows to keep wandering Jack by her side. But, more basically, they are all attracted by their association with Jack's fast- paced, bad boy, dangerous lifestyle.

Alice says this after Jack has died. The police returned the piece of plaster, along with some of the other possessions of Jack's that they had confiscated. For the most part, Kiki takes up the sexual part of Jack's life. But this quotation shows that at one time, Alice and Jack's relationship was very sexual. This side of Alice is not immediately evident in most of the novel.

Marcus says this on his way to dinner with Jack, Alice, and Kiki. Jack has just paid his legal fee to Marcus: ten thousand dollars in five hundred dollar bills. Marcus keeps Jack on as a client mainly because his association with Jack excites him. Firing machine guns, smuggling stolen money, and seducing anonymous women are not the kinds of activities Marcus enjoys with any of his other clients. Marcus also likes his association with Jack because it provides him with plenty of money. When Fogarty cannot pay Marcus's legal fee, Marcus drops him immediately, which proves that rubbing shoulders with the notorious is not quite enough for Marcus. It does thrill Marcus to rub shoulders with Jack, however, whatever the allure of the money. When Marcus refers to Jack's payment as "his own pot of gold," it suggests that Marcus sees the payment he collects as evidence that he is one of Jack's collaborators. Marcus enjoys the idea that he is getting rich as a result of Jack's gangsterism.

Marcus states this near the beginning of the novel, as he introduces the legend of Jack Diamond. Finn McCool is a legendary hero of Old Ireland, a giant of mythological proportions. Jesse James is a famous outlaw and an American legend. Horatio Alger is a novelist who wrote tales of poor boys succeeding in America by dint of hard work and luck. Here the narrator suggests that Jack is like the hero of an Alger novel and also an amalgam of McCool and James—a hero who succeeds not through hard work and luck, but through violence.