The Author’s Teeth

Early in the book, the author describes how, as a result of a fight with other children when he was young, he had his teeth knocked out and had to have them replaced. This led him, he says, to feeling self-conscious about his smile for a very long time, only becoming comfortable again with smiling as an adult. In that context, the author's teeth can be seen as representing a certain sense of identity that he lost when very young, and struggled for what seems to have been decades to reclaim.

The Author’s Name

The author's full name is identified as George Matthew Johnson. Early in the book, he tells a story of how he switched back and forth between the two because he felt uncomfortable about his first name, and how his mother eventually told him he had to make a choice...