East Gladness

East Gladness is the primary backdrop for the novel. It is a small, fictional town in central Connecticut. This setting is defined by lawns "overrun with ragweed and quack grass" and porches overflowing "with rideable plastic toys, a wagon, tricycles, [and] a fire truck" (2). At the start of the novel, the third-person narrator says that the only things East Gladness shares "with the city are the ambulances" (2). The town is rural and depressed. Many of the East Gladness residents feel caught in the town. Kids have nothing to do on their weekends, except hang out in "the Walmart parking lot." Eventually, they end up with "a baby in their arms and realize they're thirty-something" (5).

East Gladness is the town where the novel's main character Hai grew up. Despite his fraught relationship with the place, he returns here both after leaving New York and Boston. He is attached...