Chapter 16, Golden Years, Part Two Summary

Ginny and her father greet each other as she gets in his car. When Ginny tells her father that she met her mother the night before, he is silent. Her father pulls the car over and he tells her the stories of his childhood. The abuse he suffers at the hands of his mother Dorothy and how his father Ken plays the enabler in the relationship shows Ginny that her father's fear kept him from telling her about her relatives and her background. Her father verifies that fear was his prevailing motivation.

Chapter 16, Golden Years, Part Two Analysis

It is ironic that what the elderly Howards think are their golden years, their son Tony think are the years of fear. Part Two of this title is Tony's version of what happened when he was growing...