Summary

Chapter 15 begins with J.D. checking his mother, who had recently become homeless, into a cheap hotel in Middletown. The deterioration he viewed around the hotel, including a man passed out in his car after taking heroin, contrasted with his own stature in life. He was a Yale law school graduate and the former editor of the Yale Law Review. He lived in Cincinnati with his new wife and two dogs. The author states, however, that the simple fact that he was at this hotel demonstrates that his upward mobility was a more complicated story. Though he promised himself that he would stop helping his mother, J.D. became more sympathetic as he again explored Christian faith and began to understand the role a difficult childhood can play in someone’s life. He remains somewhat detached from his mother, refusing to help her...