In Other Voices, Other Rooms, what do we know about Joel?

Joel Harrison Knox is the narrator and protagonist of the story. Joel's mother dies when he is twelve years old, and because Joel's father is not part of his life, Joel moves in with his aunt Ellen and her five children. Even though Aunt Ellen loves Joel, Joel never completely adapts to life in the household and exhibits behavioral issues. A day after Joel's thirteenth birthday, a letter arrives asking that Joel move to live with his father in a place called Skully's Landing somewhere deep in Louisiana. Joel's sense of order and his own sense of himself are tested when he is thrust in the middle of the lives of some very eccentric characters. During his time at the Landing, Joel learns that his father has been an invalid for many years and that the letter that had supposedly come from his father had actually been written by a man living at the Landing named Randolph. Joel explores a budding romantic attraction with a local girl named Idabel, whose own sexual identity issues keep Joel's limited advances at bay. Joel finds a surrogate mother in a highly-strung black woman named Zoo, and is intrigued by other ancillary characters who add intrigue and interest to Joel's life. Throughout the story, Joel's hope is to find love, and he explores it in some way with all the main characters, eventually finding it with Randolph, whose goal was to love Joel from the very beginning.