Parenting

The challenges of parenting is one of the novel's central themes and a source of internal conflict for the narrator, Theo. Theo's son, Robin, is neurodiverse, and Theo struggles with weighty decisions about how to best provide care for him. He is making these decisions alone while still grieving for his wife, Alyssa, who died two years before the events of the novel. Although Theo understands that something must be done about the more combative aspects of Robin's neurodiversity, he does not believe his son has a disease and therefore refuses to medicate him with the psychoactive drugs suggested by several doctors. Theo's own parents were troubled by addiction and mental illness and therefore in no position to model appropriate parenting behavior. Without that model, and without Alyssa, Theo feels mystified by parenting. He explains, “I didn't know how to be a parent. Most of what...