crackerjack
Well-known member
What was the explanation for his preoccupation with Maidenhead? Something to do with a (deceased) sister or something? I like the way lots of things like this are just alluded to and kind of drift through the story and affect it quite strongly without ever being totally explained. Similarly the business he had with Bob (was it?) that went tits up in some unspecified manner, seems as though that was a defining moment in Bone's life (and not in a good way).
The Maidenhead thing was, i think, some moment of perfect happiness out on the lake in a boat with his sister, something that just stuck in his mind eternally. There was no real logic to it beyond that. Likewwise the bit with Bob, he was happy cos he was in business with a popular, dynamic sot of bloke and felt some of Bob's populairty rubbed off on him (same thing later with Johnnie).
A lot of the book is to do with the politics of freidnship; how self-esteem depends to some extent not just on what we think of ourselves, but how others view us, and how we view the people who like or don't like us. An American high school drama set among 30-something drinkers
That's why the internal dialogue was better than the external.
Edit: oh God, just noticed how rambling that was. Flu-ed up to fuck. I'm gonna lie on the couch.
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