It's starting to get better

Man did I have a hard time following this character! After the whole Nedra Frank debacle he jumped from Dessa to Joy back and forth and I kept getting Joy confused as Nedra Frank. One thing that was a little weird for me is the way Lamb originally described Nedra she was such an ultra uptight nerd that she would never, then, be needy enough to go to a dude's house and drink a bunch of beer with him and then try to schtup him. It seemed like it came out of left field but I'm a well-read enough gal to know that she'll come back into play sooner or later.

I'm just at the point where the brother is in the max security nut house and Dominick is starting to interact with the social worker. Just barely. I can smell a love interest just from her first answering machine message.Overall I am picking up on themes of codependency, overdeveloped sense of responsibility, resentment and forgiveness and getting in touch with your true self. I really relate to this character's overwhelming sense of loneliness and feeling like he's the only person who can get things done. That's what kept me going through some of the harder to read portions ... I really have a hard time relating to some of the young teen scenes when he's such an asshole to his ma. I guess maybe it's not that I have a hard time relating, I just wish he'd stop being such an asshole and it's uncomfortable.

I also find it grim that so much of the story is conducted within the walls of institutions. It's well-written, certainly, because the imagery is telegraphic. Come to think about it there are many gritty images in the story. Ma's hairlip is brought up over and over again and every time it makes my toes cringe. The way Lamb describes the sex with Joy and all of her weirdness is just creepy. I guess that is what makes Lamb a good writer ... I actually feel a fingernail in my mouth when I read stuff like that it's so believeable and real. Yuck. At any rate that's where I'm at with the book. If I didn't have anything else to do in a day I'd be done with it now but unfortunately I've got a job & stuff.