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Drew

Drew is the husband to Sasha and father to Lincoln and Allison. He and his son don’t really quite understand each other, Lincoln is autistic and expresses himself strangely. Although he loves his son, Drew just doesn’t connect, he gets along better with his quirky daughter Allison. Drew has always been at the center of peoples pain (Rob’s jealousy and longing and he and his sons inability to connect) despite the rock he’s been for Sasha and his career as a doctor. He wants to help and connect and sympathize, but seems to be unable.

#drew

Rob Freeman

Rob or “Bobby” became Sasha’s “pretend” boyfriend during freshman orientation at college after he has had sex with a teammate from his high school football team, but claims that he “is not a fag”. Rob has a lot of inner turmoil over his sexuality and hacks his wrists open in a suicide attempt. He feels the need to see Drew naked, believing that it will help that turmoil subside. Though Rob never liked water, he follows Drew into the East river, gests swept away in the current, and drowns.

Rob contributes to the text by showing us the damaging effects that high levels of inner turmoil can cause.

#rob

Rhea

Rhea is a young, slightly naïve girl who has dyed her hair green in an effort to camouflage her freckles in the belief that they are not in good taste. She is a small part of the punk rock band, The Flaming Dildos. Rhea is her own worst critic, suffering from her own insecurities more than anyone else’s words. Lou Kline has a profound affect on Rhea’s life from the time when they meet and he introduces her to cocaine, to when she and Jocelyn stand beside Lou’s deathbed and give him “one more minute.”

Rhea contributes to the text by teaching us how encounters and interactions with other people are bound to change your life and who you are.

#rhea

Jules

Jules is the Brother to Stephanie, he suffers from a condition. Before this was realized, he was a failing reporter in New York dishing out bad celebrity articles for his column. And during an interview with Kitty Jackson, he attempted to rape her. He did jail time and now lives with his sister in upstate New York. Jules represents a wanting. Not even a lust, he didn’t feel just lust for Kitty, he wanted to bury himself inside her atoms and pick her apart devouring the girl whole. Jules wanted human connection, something he obviously was not feeling prior to his attack.

#jules

The General

The general is a horrible foreign dictator, along the lines of Castro and Saddam Hussein. He has recently employed La Doll to improve his image with the population of his dictatorship and the world, the plan to pose him with an American actress (Kitty) goes horribly awry and he keeps Kitty. The General represents a looming danger, the inability to feel safe or comforted, much like the world is uncertain and full of travesties. The broad scale panic and widespread fear that the General carried with him helps set the tone for the era, as its relevant for the time. But also take a look at a woman (La Doll) who is willing to betray her country and put the lives of citizens (including her daughter) in danger, and still sympathize with her struggles and actions.

#thegeneral

Sasha Grady

Sasha Grady is a young, but sometimes old, sometimes a personal assistant, or a prostitute, or college student, or mother, but always a Kleptomaniac. Sasha has had a colourful life. She grew up in a semi toxic environment in California, her parents fighting all the time. When she was around sixteen she ran away and travelled the world with her boyfriend’s band. After he dropped and abandoned her in Hong Kong she slowly made her way west and ended up in Naples, where she a) ran out of funds and b) quickly acquainted herself with the art of thievery and unfortunately succeeded via prostitution. Her family finally caught wind of her whereabouts and sent her Uncle after her. She returned, and started at collage in DC.

While in collage she met Rob a sensitive football player, they incidentally had a lot in common, mostly secrets. She shared her misadventureous life in Naples and he confessed that he had a homosexual encounter with a football buddy of his, although he considers himself straight. Sasha quickly added him to her life as a fake boyfriend. Just in case her uncle has a private detective tailing her, she ‘wants to give off a positive image.’ Rob didn’t last out Drew, a friend of Sasha’s and eventually her real boyfriend. (This lead to a suicide attempt on Rob’s part). Rob ended up tragically drowning in the East river.

After his death Sasha moved on with her life, she had connections in place to go work for Bennie Salazar, and did for some time. During her time at sow’s ear, Sasha began to struggle with kleptomania, stealing dear objects and personal possessions to fill a void in her life. She left Sow’s Ear because of her condition and married Drew. He had become a doctor, and she eventually became a mother. They soon moved out to the desert to live out their lives with their two children Lincoln (autistic) and Allison.

Sasha represents a need for comfort and a closeness to others that she either lost in Naples or with rob or as a child or perhaps never did have either way its rooted in a lack of consistency in her life growing up and thought her young adulthood. It’s why she steals what she steals and who she steals from. Time shows her coping and mellowing out her condition, going from turning tricks as a teen to making junk sculptures for her desert garden from insignificant items she’s kept. Time has slowed her down, allowing her to finally find consistency and balance.

#sasha

Jocelyn

Jocelyn is a seventeen year old wannabe punk rocker, and is a part of Bennie’s band (Including Scotty) as a lyricist with her best friend Rhea. They all travel and preform as a gaggle of teens (this includes Alice, Scotty, Bennie, and Rhea). She is Asian American with slick bobbed black hair, has a propensity for hard drugs, and a wandering personality. On one of her wanderings she hitches a ride with Lou Kline, a smooth record producer with six children and a like inclination towards hard drugs. They hit it off and begin having a rather toxic drug induced affair. This new pull Lou now has on Jocelyn’s life disrupts the steady flow of her gaggle. Lou can get their band (the Flaming Dildos) somewhere, something they’ve been working at for months, but Lou and Jocelyn’s relationship is slowly becoming more toxic. Subsequently, the affair continues, and Jocelyn gets drawn farther down the rabbit hole. She eventually finds solace with Lou’s favourite child Rolph, the two fall in love. Jocelyn continues to cater to his father’s sexual whims. Later in life Rolph will commit suicide, influenced partly by her betrayal. We lose track of Jocelyn after her chapter ends, and when she re-emerges, many years later, we learn that she is a recovering heroin addict who lives at home.

Jocelyn represents loss of innocence, and how after a while so much is erased of the original self there is nothing to return to but a husk and hazy memories. Time swallowed her up and she became too lost in her memories to move on and forward in her life like everyone else from her youth did, or at least attempted to.

#jocelyn

Allison

Allison is the only Daughter to Sasha and Drew, and the little sister to Lincoln. Allison is a very observant child and communicates her family’s situation to the reader through a power point. Allison loves her family very much, especially her brother, who she is fascinated by. Allison reports on Lincoln’s obsession over pauses in songs and explains its importance to the reader.

Allison’s narration through power point takes a huge leap in the theme of technology’s role in story telling. Her ability to tell a coherent story through limited words and symbols demonstrates to the reader how technology can not only play a role in the content of the stories and the lives of the character, but also in the way the story is told. Allison’s narration also gives the reader a closer on how Sasha’s life plays out. Through Allison the reader is able to see that Sasha ended up having a comfortable life with two kids, and a loving husband, but leading a very simple existence.

#allison

Stephanie

Stephanie is the wife to Bennie, mother to Chris, and sister to Jules. She works as a publicist for La Doll. Stephanie wants to fit in, the reader can see this when she joins a country club she does not like and becomes friends with a woman she disagrees with politically and can only tolerate. Stephanie lies to her husband in an effort to make them both as happy as possible, even though lies end up destroying their marriage.

Stephanie helps further the plot by giving context to Bennie’s marriage as well as another look Jules, a loving perspective. Stephanie presents the idea that people desperately need to fit in. Even though Stephanie dislikes the country club and it’s members she would rather be part of it and miserable than not have a place to belong. Stephanie also shows the reader the downside to rationalizing poor decisions, she lies to her husband and her “friend” to better herself, but rationalizes that it’s for them. Stephanie is a character that pays for her consequences and continues on with life. The reader is unable to see how time treats Stephanie after the chapter she narrates.

#stephanie

Lulu Peale

Lulu is Dolly's daughter who goes to an expensive school that Dolly has to work constantly to pay for. She seems to be almost ashamed of her mother because of 'The Accident' at 'The Party' which ended Dolly with some jail time. Lulu makes another appearance in the final chapter of the book. She meets Alex and is filled with the latest technological lingo. She symbolizes the younger generation being overcome with social media and technology.

#lulu

Alice

Alice was friends with Bennie Salazar and Scotty when they were teenagers in a punk band called the "Flaming Dildos". She is rich and pretty, and Rhea says she is not a "real" punk, although Rhea doesn't feel like one herself and doesn't seem to know what a real punk is. She has an obsession with frogs, which Rhea discovers when she is hanging out with Alice in her room. The fact that no one in the group knew about her love of frogs shows her detachment from the rest of the group. Alice has a crush on Scotty, and they end up getting married then divorced. Having an unsuccessful marriage with Alice is part of what makes Scotty feel like a failure.

#alice

Dolly (La Doll)

Dolly fits into the story as Stephanie's boss. She looks as if she's been digitally altered with her bright blond bob cut, bold lipstick, and "algorithmic" eyes. She's kind of a jerk, but she owns it and it does not bother her when people point it out. She is a major workaholic. The point of Dolly's character in the book is to emphasize the theme of redemption. She was once a high level publicist,but after the horrible accident (when she is sued for spilling hot oil on a party with 500 guests) that causes her to lose everything, she realizes there is more to life than fame and money. However, one has to question whether she really redeems herself or not when she takes a job from The General in her desperation

#ladoll