I need a break from this... inertia of yours, and I think you need to move, I mean pry yourself free from a place that's become so familiar you simply can't see it.
-- Sandra (chapter 1 paragraph 2)

Importance: Kit's wife, Sandra, is exasperated with Kit's sense of ennui about life ever since he lost his teaching position at a local college. She has tried everything she can think of to bring Kit out of his enertia but nothing has worked. Finally, she recommends that he leave for awhile to go find his biological father in the hopes that that knowledge will ground him and give him some renewed enthusiasm for life.

So yes, there was a second person who made you, along with me. But he was a boy, not a man, and boys can't really be fathers.
-- Daphne (chapter 1 paragraph 1)

Importance: Kit longs to know about his biological father but Daphne resists telling him anything of any substance...