Although fourteen-year-old George narrates the novel, he and his eleven-year-old brother Monty are equally important to the story line. The reader sees the world through George's eyes, but Monty is the catalyst for most of the important scenes. Through these two characters, the book explores themes of responsibility, loss and resiliency, avoidance and acceptance, transformation, and the importance of family ties.

It is interesting to note the change in George from the prologue, in which he follows his father with childlike adoration, to the first chapter. Set five years later, the opening chapter shows George as an almost preternaturally adult teenager, dressed in a suit and leaving the house to take care of some family business. When his younger brother, a hyperactive sixth-grader, begs to come along, Monty's actions are reminiscent of George's behavior in the prologue, as George followed his father on a...