David

David is the story's narrator and main character. His chief struggle in life is the question of his sexuality. He desperately wants to "be a man," which, he believes, requires being heterosexual, having a wife, and starting a family. He tries to understand the roots of his sexuality and speculates that it might have something to do with his mother's death while he was very young and his unsatisfactory relationship with his father, who never really embraced his duty as a parent. When he was a young boy, probably in his early teens, he has a sexual encounter with his best friend, Joey. He is so ashamed by it that he completely cuts Joey out of his life, as if by blotting him out he could blot out his own sexuality. After a brief stint in the military—during which he has an ambiguous relationship with a...