Family and Childhood

Through Otto's relationships with his siblings, Sharon, Corinne, and Martin, the author explores the impact of the individual's family and childhood on his sense of self. Thanksgiving dinner acts as the impetus for the narrative tension. "A week or so" after Corinne has invited Otto, he regrets agreeing to the family gathering (47). His phone conversation with Corinne, and his subsequent visit to Sharon, further amplify Otto's sense of dread and despair. He feels disgusted by the importance his siblings continue to place on their relationships. It has, after all, taken him "years and years to establish a viable, if not pristine, degree of estrangement from his family" (46). After his mother's death, he thought he would finally be able to exist the way he was always meant to exist: "alone in the world...or alone in the world, anyway, with William" (46-47). His perpetually negative...