The novel is unusual for the irreverent way that historical figures and fictional characters are woven into the narrative, making for surprising connections and linking different events and trains of thought about fame and success, on the one hand, and poverty and racism on the other. One such figure is the black moderate politician Booker T. Washington, who tries to negotiate with Coalhouse Walker without success.
Harry Houdini plays an incidental yet prominent part, reflecting on success and mortality. As his success grows, he becomes increasingly depressed and believes his work is ultimately meaningless. After his mother's death, he becomes obsessed with exposing fraudulent occultism, while secretly longing to find a true mystic experience.
Arch-capitalist financier J. P. Morgan, pursuing his complex delusions of grandeur, becomes obsessed with reincarnation and Egyptian mysticism, and finds an unexpected kindred spirit in the down-to-earth Henry Ford. Traveling to Egypt hoping for a vision of his grand destiny, Morgan only dreams of a past life as an ordinary peddler.
Socialite Evelyn Nesbit, desperate to escape the press, becomes involved with Tateh and takes it on herself to care for his daughter. On meeting the anarchist agitator Emma Goldman her identity is exposed and Tateh leaves her. Emma gives Evelyn comfort and guidance on how to free herself from the domination of men. Later, Younger Brother encounters Goldman, who advises him to move beyond his obsession with Evelyn.
Other historical characters mentioned include
- the polar explorer Robert Peary and his black assistant Matthew Henson
- the architect Stanford White
- Nesbit's mentally unbalanced husband Harry Kendall Thaw, who murdered White for allegedly sexually assaulting Nesbit when she was 15
- Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
- Countess Sophie Chotek
- Sigmund Freud, who rides the Tunnel of Love at Coney Island with Carl Jung
- Theodore Dreiser
- Jacob Riis
- the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, with whom Younger Brother eventually joins forces.
Two real-life New York City officials also appear in the book: Manhattan District Attorney Charles S. Whitman and Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo.
