Summary

In the section “Palindromes” Austin notes that all the men in his family were cigarette smoking Catholics until his father married his mother, stopped smoking and became Lutheran. He’d decided that after he talked to his father about his sexual confusion, he was going to change his name and take back the consonants removed from it when his family first came to America. When his father woke him up the morning after he’d kissed Robby, however, Austin decided against talking to his father about his sexual confusion since he was naked under the sheets. He had a text from Robby apologizing when he checked his phone. Austin made arrangements for them to meet at Stan’s Pizza (Satan’s) at 5 p.m.

In the section “A Bath, A Shave, and Modesty” Austin called Shann while he...