Jacob

Jacob is the novel’s central character, its protagonist and in many places its narrator. Its various narrative lines and elements are all defined by his voice, experiences, and perspectives: the present-day, “In the Clinic” sections are first-person narrations of his attempts to get psychiatric help, while the more memory-oriented “Jacob’s Journals” sections are first-person narration of experiences in his past and his contemplations of those experiences. The “Jacob’s Stories” are ostensibly narrated in voices other than Jacob’s, but the values, situations, and plots they explore are all clearly defined by aspects of Jacob’s history and value system, as portrayed elsewhere in the book.

Key components of Jacob’s identity, as manifest throughout the book are his ethno-cultural origin (he self-identifies as Arab); his sexual orientation (he self-identifies as gay); and his age (he self-identifies as old, even though he is only in his...