"Murderers" by Leonard Michaels

A significant feature of "Murderers" is its pace and rhythm. The reader experiences a sense of danger early on by the foreshadowing statement: "I wanted proximity to darkness, strangeness. Who doesn't?" (Michaels 342). This statement reveals Philip's motivation and need for adventure. He doesn't want to end up like his Uncle Moe, now dead of a heart attack, who "shuffled away his life, in the kitchen or toilet, under the linoleum, near the coffeepot" (Michaels 342). Thus Philip "became an expert in the subway system," traveling to far-flung neighborhoods of New York City (Michaels 342).

When Philip and his friends learn that the Rabbi is home, the pace of the story quickens. The boys run to their destination; no words are necessary. They scramble to their perch on the water tower with drill-like precision; it is a route that they have taken numerous times before: "How many times had we risked shameful discovery, scrambling up the ladder . . . " (Michaels 344). The pace of the story grows more urgent as the rabbi and his wife stimulate their love-making with rumba music. Michaels even inserts an entire stanza from the Choo Choo Lopez Rumba (Michaels 344). Micha

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Approximate Word count = 1124
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)