Peekay (Pisskop, Tadpole Angel)

The entire story is told from the point of view of this character. The reader is introduced to him when he is at the age of five, right after his mother has had a nervous breakdown and he is sent to a boarding school in which he is an English speaking minority, as well as being younger than anyone else in the school by two years. In addition, he is small for his age. Taken together, all of these factors mean that he is ripe to be picked on by the other boys at his school. He is picked on indeed; in fact, his scourging is so extreme that many modern readers will wonder if he can ever recover from the indignities that are rained down upon him. Through the horrible experiences he endures at the school, the young boy, who is called Pisskop at...