Drugs

Throughout the novel, Clegg presents the reader with characters who participate in recreational drugs. Silas, one of the story’s main characters, smokes weed habitually, Rebecca’s closest friend Penny is addicted to heroin, Rex deals and traffics cocaine, and George’s son Robert overdoses on heroin. Each of these characters does drugs and their participation in this drug abuse affects not only themselves, but almost every other character in the story. The inclusion of such a high frequency of junkie characters in the story reflects a preoccupation on the author’s part and transcends from a simple facet of the story into a serious and prevalent theme.

The theme of drug use and involvement might better be stated as the effect of drug use. Clegg does not describe his characters taking drugs except for when he writes about Silas smoking marijuana. This omission is notable...