Summary

While on vacation in Hawaii, Hugh reads David's latest manuscript for the first time. When David hears him laugh, he asks "What's so funny?" and when five or ten minutes pass with no reaction, he calls out, "Why Aren't You Laughing?" As Hugh reads, David autographs pages to be inserted into the soon-to-be-printed books. He watches reality television shows about drug addicts, alcoholics, and hoarders, and wonders what his mother would think about the world today. Another reason this type of television makes him think about his mother is because she was an alcoholic. Sober, she was cheerful and charismatic and loved to tell stories that made people laugh. After drinking, "she'd look different, raw, like you'd taken the lady she was earlier and peeled her" (200). Always loyal to their mother, David and his siblings "separated her into two people and...