Donald Weinstein

Donald Weinstein is a study in controlled surfaces. He is the brother of Judith Weinstein, the young woman who approaches Maddie Schwartz outside her car to invite her to a Stonewall Democratic Club meeting, and he is described by Judith as "a sweetheart" in contrast to their brother Jack, whom she calls "a bit of a jerk." Donald is a bachelor, and Judith tells Maddie he is "content to be one," a description that is both true and a carefully constructed fiction. He is the chief of staff for a political figure who could be governor in eight years, a man who has risen from being "just a muldoon, a foot soldier" to being "a b'hoy, calling the shots, making the deals, getting things done." The B'hoy is the name he gives himself, a private title that marks his arrival in the world of Baltimore machine politics, and he measures his success by the prospect of acquiring a nickname like Harry "White Shoes" McGuirk or even Shell Gordon, who he spots nursing a beer in the corner of Leon's. His only fear is that his nickname might be "fagalah."

Identity and the Closet

Donald's public identity is a performance sustained by collective silence. He reflects that "plenty of people know" about his life and preferences, but "no one ever talks about it." His boss and his sister, he believes, think they are doing him a favor by ignoring the obvious and making jokes about "Baltimore bachelors." He has two friends, Ron and Bill, who share a little house in an out-of-the-way neighborhood in the Northwest, and everyone seems to think they are just "two swinging single guys, on the prowl for women." Ron drives a flashy little sports car, and both are handsome. The charade extends to a Halloween party Donald attended the previous year, when a boy across the street came to the door trick-or-treating dressed as a woman, and everyone had a good laugh and gave the kid extra candy. Donald imagines that one day the boy will look back and connect the dots, a house full of men at a Halloween party, and he allows that maybe one day the boy will be one of them. He himself was in his teens before he figured out his own nature, and in his twenties before he dared to act on his desires. The cost of that delay is a permanent vigilance: "I have to be so careful, while the Ezekiel Taylors of the world just have to avoid embarrassing their wives."

The bar at the Lord Baltimore Hotel is where Donald first appears in the narrative, and Leon's, a discreet place on Park Avenue not even ten blocks from where Maddie lives, is where he goes to be himself "in total." He describes the relief of having a drink in a place where he is allowed to be himself, where he can finally be "me," not Donald Weinstein, "macher, mensch, the hard-driving chief of staff." The distinction between the two selves is absolute, and the bar is the only territory where the private self is permitted to exist.

Meeting Maddie Schwartz

The meeting with Maddie is arranged by Judith, who has assured Donald that it is not a social meeting. He walks into the bar and immediately identifies "my brunette," the woman his baby sister asked him to see, quivering like a greyhound and eating pretzels one after another. He hopes it is not a social meeting, because he would not have time for a family even if he wanted one. Yet he admits that if he were to choose a bride, his mother would "plotz" if it could be someone like Madeline Morgenstern Schwartz, though she would not be happy about the divorcée part. His mother is very hard on other women, and Donald hints at family shame, noting that they are lucky the only public "shanda" in the Weinstein family was the bankruptcy of Weinstein's. He professes not to know things and not to want to know things, describing the family specialty as "not asking questions, leaving the stones unturned."

Maddie wastes no time on pleasantries. She asks directly why Shell Gordon wants Ezekiel Taylor to get the Democratic nomination for senate, and Donald is struck by her approach: "Experienced reporters palaver, toy with you, waste your time. This one has no idea what she's doing, but at least that means I won't be here long." He answers with the insider's knowledge of the Fourth District: Willie Adams is beefing with Verna Welcome, thinking she is not loyal to him, and Jerry Pollock, who used to control the Fourth, thinks he can get the seat back. With the field crowded and two senate seats open, anything could happen. He also delivers a crucial piece of information, that Shell had no reason to get rid of Cleo Sherwood, because she made Ezekiel happy and the affair gave Shell even more power over him.

Family and the Weinstein Legacy

Donald's relationship with Judith is the one genuine attachment in his life. He is trying to get her a secretarial job at NSA through a guy who knows a guy, and he hates calling in favors, disliking being in anyone's debit column, but he will do it for her. He sees her as still a baby, living at home, thinking she wants out, though he is not sure why. He suspects that once Judith hooks a guy, she will be more like their mother, trying to control everything, "which is the obvious way to be when you control nothing." He does not think Judith has picked up on all the things he has figured out about their parents, because she was so young, a baby really, when everything was happening. He also knows about Judith's "shaygets fever," her habit of running around with redheads, and he warns that she better get that out of her system or she will be disowned, "not that there's anything to inherit." Only marriage is going to get her out of that house, and the guy better be Jewish.

The Cost of the Closet

Donald's narrative is a meditation on the price of secrecy in a world that punishes visibility. He is a man who has achieved power, position, and the respect of his political superiors, yet he cannot claim the life he actually wants. His observation about Ezekiel Taylor, that men like him "just have to avoid embarrassing their wives," is the bitterest line in his account, contrasting the ease of a powerful man's discreet affair with the constant vigilance required of a closeted homosexual. The B'hoy identity is his compensation, a swaggering self-image that lets him feel like a player in the game even as he remains invisible in the most important way. His fear of the nickname "fagalah" reveals the terror beneath the bravado, the knowledge that one slip could undo everything he has built. He is, in the end, a man who has made a bargain with his world, trading honesty for success, and the narrative leaves no doubt about which side of that bargain he regrets.