Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew Up… only a mile and a half away from the house he is raising a family in, in a small town in Pennsylvania.
Living… with his wife and children in a Gothic Revival home he meticulously restores and decorates with period furnishings.
Profession… high school English teacher. But his true passion is his house. He also runs the town’s funeral home, which he inherited as a family business from his parents.
Interests… reading, interior decorating, and birding.
Relationship Status… married. But unbeknownst to most people, Bruce is also gay, and has had affairs with young men for much of the length of his marriage.
Challenge… struggling with the internalized shame and discomfort he feels as a result of his sexual orientation conflicted with the expectations of society and family life.
Personality… passionate, closed-off, and artistic. Bruce is an artist who loves books and aesthetics passionately, and will wax eloquent about them. But he doesn’t know how to connect with his family, and seldom expresses his true feelings. His emotions can explode out of him in anger or in love. He is a complicated person, and he looms large in the psyche of his daughter, Allison.
