The young hero is the central character—Michael, a "wiseass" who does not know how to drive a car. Besides his intelligence, wit, courage, and genuine good nature, his great gift is his ability to encounter and respect that which is new or unknown, even when at closer inspection it must remain the Other, like the Southern culture he meets in Pensacola: "That was another thing I learned: I wasn't one of them, maybe never could be one of them, because the things that were deep in me didn't exist for them, and the things that were deep in the southerners didn't mean anything to me. I could be quiet, that was all. I could respect them.

But I couldn't truly feel what they felt."

This quality, along with his courage and fighting prowess—he is trained as a boxer—is what draws Eden, Bobby...