Memory and the Past

The author uses the mysterious accident to spur the novel’s explorations of memory and the past. At the novel’s start, none of the characters wants to discuss what happened on the night of Gary and his teammates’ party. In spite of their avoidance defense mechanisms, the characters’ minds often return to memories of the night and the tragedy that occurred in the Geists’ pasture. The characters’ fraught relationships with this incident capture the ways in which memory and the past might dictate the individual’s regard for the present.

Gary’s and Eric’s characters experience anxiety and depression, loneliness and immobilization as a result of their traumatic pasts. For Gary, ignoring what happened to his friends and his part in their deaths is his way of skirting blame. Everyone in town knows that “Gary always [gets] what he want[s...