In Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack, Kenexposes the variety and psychological complexity of human relationships, focusing on the individual's need for self-respect and the consequences of ignoring this need in others.

The reader meets Susan "Dinky" Hocker, the title character of the novel, through the protagonist, Tucker Woolf.

Dinky—the daughter of Horace Hocker, an attorney, and Helen Hocker, a "dogooder" who flits from cause to cause—is an intelligent, witty girl whose weight problem stems from parental neglect.

Dinky eats heavily and frequently, and as she grows bigger and feels lonelier, she increasingly identifies with the physically grotesque social outcasts she reads about, such as John Merrick, the Elephant Man. Her mother dedicates her time to leading a drug rehabilitation encounter group, and her father, who helps with the group, is constantly busy.

Both view the reformed drug addict, Marcus, as their...