Book 1: Chapters 1-3 Summary

Joe Bonham wishes someone would pick up the phone. He has a terrible headache and it has been ringing all night. Bonham is ordered "front and center" in the night shipping room, shaking with fear, takes the phone, learns his father has died, and is driven home by Rudy, as ordered by night foreman Jody Simmons. It is raining in a quiet Los Angeles, just before Christmas. Father lies dead in the living room, and Mother is not crying much. Joe's seven-year-old sister is asleep and the thirteen-year-old sister is crumbled in a corner. They retreat to the kitchen as two men efficiently load the fifty-one-year-old dead man into a wicker basket. Joe has a last look and expresses sorrow for all his father's griefs. Mother shakes, declaring that is not Bill Bonham any more. That is all.

Joe...