George's home on Camphor Tree Lane, somewhere in California

George's home on Camphor Tree Lane is a secluded place. "You could only get to it by the bridge across the creek; the surrounding trees and the steep bushy cliff behind shut it in like a house in a forest clearing" (20). The garage "was covered with a vast humped growth of ivy, half dead, half alive," and on the inside the home was tiny and tightly planned (20). The staircase is narrow and steep, and one must bend one's head "even if, like George," they are "only five eight" (12). The living room "is dark and low-ceilinged, with bookshelves all along the wall opposite the windows" (16). There is a small kitchen and a smaller bathroom, and all this smallness and lowness seems protective. The description of seclusion, claustrophobia, closeness, and protection in many ways reflects the attitude George carries with...