Wallace

Wallace is the novel’s protagonist. He is a gay, Black man, and he is originally from a small town in Alabama. His parents were alcoholics, and his grandparents were fundamentalist Christians. In his youth, Wallace’s household and neighborhood were intolerant of homosexuality. Wallace’s parents were sometimes kind, but they were also neglectful and abusive. When Wallace was young, he was repeatedly raped by an adult man. By studying hard, Wallace managed to go to college for science, and he was determined to cut himself off from his upbringing. In the central storyline—which is set approximately in the present day—Wallace is several years into a graduate biochemistry program at an unnamed university in the American Midwest. There have been no Black students in this program in the past 30 years.

Wallace endures many manifestations of racial discrimination, both within and around the university. Wallace’s...