Rich Fischer

Rich is the novel’s central character, its protagonist, and narrator. He portrays himself as being in his forties, as becoming (and feeling) less and less physically attractive, and as being torn between the demands of his home life (as husband to a troubled woman and father to two difficult children, all of whom he adores) and the lingering dreams of his past (for professional success and sexual, romantic fulfilment). His time at an artists’ conference in New England, in which he has participated for the last five years, simultaneously awakens and deepens his considerations of all these sides of his life, leading him to desire, frustration, and confusion on both sides of what he perceives as the home-fulfillment equation.

As a narrator, Rich often comes across as being very self-oriented: self-focused, self-pitying, self-dramatizing. There is a sense, however, that he is unaware that he is doing...