Billy's mother is personally unreliable, but there is method in her madness. As her son rises to success (or falls, depending on the reader's moral outlook), she follows her own unpredictable route that eventually meets Billy's.

The characters in Billy Bathgate follow rules tailored to their personalities, and through Billy, the reader sees these individual codes.

Billy is by no means omniscient--that would destroy the credibility of the novel--but he is aware and lucky. These attributes give him his place in the gang.

Doctorow's book itself is based on an invisible but firm set of rules. Characters appear and reappear, but they do so logically if not chronologically. The plot jumps from place to place, but this movement only emphasizes the role of chance.

Billy Bathgate's metaphor for his own life is juggling: "It was juggling that had got me where I was...And when I wasn't juggling I was doing sleight of hand...magic was not the point, it was never the point, dexterity was to me the point."

As if Doctorow has adopted Bathgate's code, he amazes with his dexterity. From a Saratoga racetrack to a Bronx orphanage, he manipulates scene and language, and his freedom of form is the product and proof of great control.