Who is Victor Barren?

Victor is a close second to Penelope in terms of dramatic change between realities. While he still studies physics and has an interest in time-travel in both, Victor’s personality could not be more different. In Tom’s old world, his father, Victor, was cold and single-mindedly focused on his work. Tom did not have much of a relationship with him at all, and when Tom presses him on the question of why he even had a child in the first place he explains “I had work to do…and your mother was lonely” (82).