Summary

Chapter 7 is a short two-page chapter written in poetic verse. It is a description of a dream Matt had about delivering newspapers on his bike as a child. He delivers a paper to his father’s porch. The paper contains “fresh despairs: new Vietnams and Watergates, Mansons and Patty Hearsts, not to mention Andy Capp and Hi and Lois, horoscopes, a Crossword puzzle, box scores - even the obit of my poor mother” (68). Matt’s father tells him not to cry as “he folded that paper back up and tucked the only good thing I ever did under his arm, easing back into the warm house of [Matt’s] dead childhood to take his morning shit” (69).

Analysis

Matt’s dream illuminates his disdain for his current life and choices and his tendency to look fondly on the...