Summary

Chapter 5 details Maurice’s toast to Kevin. It is 9:20 p.m. Kevin has always sent his father a bottle of rare whiskey for his birthday. One of these boxes with lined with a lush orange fabric that Sadie used to make a purse for her hairpins. Maurice has this purse in his pocket. Maurice is opening one of these bottles of whiskey, an 18-year-old Jefferson malt, to toast his son.

Maurice remembers coming in late one night and hearing Sadie talking to Kevin as she prepared him for bed. She told tell him that she loved him and instructed him to love himself. Maurice wondered if it was that sort of treatment that had made Kevin grow into such a content adult.

Maurice had been frustrated by Kevin when Kevin was young because Kevin hated working on the farm. After a few years, Maurice...