Bookmarks Subscribers discussion

Could you live as Talmadge did? Do you think he was lonely? Did he enjoy his solitude? What about Caroline, Clee, Della, Angelene? Were they lonely? How is being alone different from being lonely?

I posted the questions, borrowed from an online reading guide, before I'd read the book. I'm not sure how the other questions resonate, but this one sure does. I thought the prevailing emotion for most of the characters was overwhelming loneliness. The exceptions to that we're the secondary characters - Clee and Caroline seemed fairly content with their lives. Della's loneliness and aloneness seemed self imposed, but Talmadge and Angelene seemed to want connections. Talmadge didn't know how to connect with people, and Angelene was the victim of the behavior of those around her.