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Ms. MacDonald
Billy is Reggie’s older brother, aged 19 in the novel. He was Reggie’s hero when they were children, but over the years, he’s gotten involved in petty theft and drugs. Thugs associated with Billy trash Reggie’s flat and later burn it down, and Reggie discovers that Billy, on the premise of doing odd jobs for Ms. MacDonald, has been smuggling heroin in hollowed-out Loeb Classics editions. He later threatens Reggie with violence and, at the end of the book, muses that he’s going to kill his sister. It’s unclear whether this is an idle threat or not. It also happens that Billy sold a Russian handgun, his father’s Gulf War souvenir, to Dr. Hunter—though Reggie is unaware that Joanna had any knowledge of Billy.
Billy Chase Quotes in When Will There Be Good News?
The When Will There Be Good News? quotes below are all either spoken by Billy Chase or refer to Billy Chase. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Reggie Chase, Warrior Virgin
Quotes
She picked it up. Same neat hole cut into its center. She ran a finger around the sides of the little paper coffin. Was someone hiding secrets inside Ms. MacDonald’s Loeb Classics? All of them? Or only the ones that she needed for her A level? The cutout hole was the work of someone who was good with his hands. Someone who might have had a future as a joiner but instead became a street dealer hanging around on corners, pale and shifty. He was higher up the pyramid now, but Billy was someone with no sense of loyalty. Someone who would take from the hand that fed him, and hide what he took in secret little boxes.
Reggie didn’t mean to cry, but she was so tired and so small and her face hurt where the book had hit it and the world was so full of big men telling people they were dead. “Sweet little wife, pretty little baby.”
Where did a person go when they had no one to turn to and nowhere left to run?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire When Will There Be Good News? LitChart as a printable PDF.
Billy Chase Quotes in When Will There Be Good News?
The When Will There Be Good News? quotes below are all either spoken by Billy Chase or refer to Billy Chase. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Reggie Chase, Warrior Virgin
Quotes
She picked it up. Same neat hole cut into its center. She ran a finger around the sides of the little paper coffin. Was someone hiding secrets inside Ms. MacDonald’s Loeb Classics? All of them? Or only the ones that she needed for her A level? The cutout hole was the work of someone who was good with his hands. Someone who might have had a future as a joiner but instead became a street dealer hanging around on corners, pale and shifty. He was higher up the pyramid now, but Billy was someone with no sense of loyalty. Someone who would take from the hand that fed him, and hide what he took in secret little boxes.
Reggie didn’t mean to cry, but she was so tired and so small and her face hurt where the book had hit it and the world was so full of big men telling people they were dead. “Sweet little wife, pretty little baby.”
Where did a person go when they had no one to turn to and nowhere left to run?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
