Family as Home

Through Danny's many complex relationships with his family members and friends, the author explores the ways in which the individual can recreate a sense of home through his most intimate alliances. After Danny's mother abandons his family when he is a child, and after his father dies when Danny is just 15, he finds himself unconsciously relying on his sister almost entirely for a sense of familial stability. After Maeve moves to college, and later when Danny leaves for university himself, he looks to his connections with Sandy, Jocelyn, and Celeste to grant him a sense of comforting and grounding familiarity. Though he does not recognize the significance of this network of dependencies, Danny's home is fixed within his relationships, rather than a physical structure.

Andrea's decision to kick him out of the Dutch House, fractures Danny's early understanding of home. His and Maeve's longtime...