Jared has everything he could ask for: a job, a loving wife, and a lovelier baby who is due to be born. Yet he is unhappy. Why? It is because his parents had not told him about some of the details of his birth; his mother had kept a secret about his father away from Jared. This was what Jared resented when he found out the ‘secret’, and slowly the rift between him and his parents were complete and he left home telling them he would never return. All throughout his mother acted cold and detached. But now that his own child is about to be born, he is torn between whether the baby should be told about this secret of his grandfather or not. People like Jared’s father get closeted because of society, the repulsion and disrespect Jared has for his father is also due to the conventional social environment he grew up in, and the reason why his mother could not share this secret of his father with Jared before was also due to society. This is indeed a very painful view of the kind of society we live in. The novel’s plot was heart-rending and full of melancholy. Highly recommended for those who enjoy sentimental plots.
What could have been made better: too often Jared and his mother acted like victims. I believe they could have acted a bit more maturely.