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8 years ago
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Annie I dont think he made himself into a chair but fused himself and made one with the chair. If he turned into a chair there would be two chairs the "original" and him.
I thought it was so sad how she begs him to only use that one chair so she could always know where he is. I almost cried.

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Susie I wondered if, based on her discriptions, she was describing the brother as someone with Aspergers. But towards the end it seems clear he’s also inherited the disorder, which might be a form of intuitive empathy (if I had to name it & if one believes in that sort of thing). We all imbue material objects, and personify animals, with great meaning and I suppose there could be ways to read the novel metaphorically. The concept seems brilliant, but there’s great lack of clarity in this work.

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Ken Cartisano This book is, I believe, classic science fiction. I believe the author made it clear that this was a family of oddly gifted people. The failure of the father to utilize his own gift left his son and daughter without any guidance or example of how to deal with their own particular gifts. The triumph of Rose, is her patience and determination to find a way to put it to good use, for herself, and others. Her brother was not so lucky, or successful.

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Adriana I think it is actually a metaphor for his inability to adapt to this world and society, since he is described as a genius. His "talent" is to escape reality in these objects and because he does belong among other people, he just decides to disappear forever. It could also be a very well hidden hint that is trying to suggest to us that he committed suicide.

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Geoffrey Nutting I thought Joseph's gift was to shapeshift (thus, sometimes a chair, sometimes a dresser, etc; that's also why he would periodically disappear).

Some people had the interesting suggestion that he could feel emotions by touch (hence, pulling the splinters out of his Mom's hand).

I never saw that he 'wanted to turn himself into a chair, only'; that was just an example of one of the shapes he could assume.

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Lisa I found this really hard to understand - the description of the legs going into his legs, etc. In the end, I kind of gave up on wholly "getting" this part but it mostly didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book!

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