This is a novel about human relationships, so that well developed characters are important to the themes. The main character is Jeff, a good-looking boy who has had a number of romances with different girls—all of them pretty, as he emphatically states.

Looks are important to him, and when he first meets clumsy, overweight Ellen, he is simply disgusted. The events are seen through Jeff's eyes, and he reveals himself as a shallow character with little sensitivity or thought for others.

Jeff's mother is the person who has probably the most influence on her son, even though she remains on the sidelines. Readers do not get to know her except from Jeff's point of view.

She is clinging and manipulative, and she manages to make her son do whatever she wants by playing on his feelings of guilt. Somehow, he always feels...