Since rent control had been established in New York, rents could only be increased when a new tenant applied for an apartment, and an underground business to maintain low rents had come into existence: tenants secretly kept their apartment in the name of the original renter as long as they could, especially if they were members of the same family or were friends, and made their financial adjustments with each other. Like Gogol’s Dead Souls, tenants were living there who had long since gone elsewhere. The practice fostered clusters of families who had lived in these apartments for decades. When Yetti moved to Florida she left her apartment to Elsbeta, which was Elsbeta’s last move and final apartment: three bedrooms with a terrace off the living room facing the front street, and a pleasant
