"The Speed of Dark" The Other Characters in "Speed of Dark"

[Michael]

In other threads, we've talked a lot about Lou and tangentially about other characters who come into contact with Lou during the course of the novel. This thread is devoted to those other characters--including Crenshaw, Don, Marjorie, etc.

Who stood out for you as a secondary character and why? Who did you like? Who did you dislike?

And were your perceptions of the characters clouded by Lou's first-person narration?

Did you find it interesting or helpful when Moon had short segments that took place in the third-person from a different perspective?

[KristenR]

I have mixed feelings about the third person chapters. I found them jarring, but I think overall it gave a better understanding of how accurate Lou's observations were.

I never got a clear understanding of Lucia. She didn't make a lot of sense to me.

I liked Marjorie, but kept wishing she'd be more straightforward with Lou (but then maybe she was and Lou just didn't see it)

I liked Tom and thought he had real affection for Lou and thought of him as a friend.

In a funny way I liked Emmy....I really felt her jealousy and felt bad for her.

[Laura]

I thought Don was the best contrast in the book. A picture of someone who is normal, is expected to act normal, doesn't get any extra supports, but is really pretty broken.

I thought the cop was so great - I loved seeing how he interacted with Lou, took him seriously and adapted to how Lou needed to communicate. And he got a clear picture of Crenshaw in about 2 minutes when Lou talked about him.

[Esmoi]

Echoing others, I liked poor, angry, jealous Emmy and I also thought the police officers were some of the most fleshed out characters in the book. It was interesting to see how Lou feared the police in the beginning and found his fears diminished after interacting with individual officers. Usually in fiction it seems to go the other way around: character starts out believing in "the system" and is disillusioned by corrupt officials.

Lucia was sort of a disappointment. We learned just enough about her to pique our interest, but it didn't seem to go anywhere. I wanted to know more. But maybe that was the point. Lou tended to see other people in terms of behavior patterns rather than forming a cohesive view of the individual's personality.

The sections in the third person weren't very helpful, in my opinion. I think it was a good idea to include such sections, but it could have been better executed. These parts of the story could have illustrated (vividly!) how differently Lou saw the world in multiple respects. Instead they simply revealed a few additional facts of which Lou wasn't aware. The characters could have been written to come across as more well-rounded and "real" in these sections, since we were supposedly seeing them without being limited to Lou's focus/perception... but I did not feel that this happened.

[Michelle]

Esmoi wrote: "The characters could have been written to come across as more well-rounded and "real" "

that was one of my main gripes with this book - that all the supporting characters were somewhat one-dimensional. i actually liked Lucia's ambiguity; that she confused Lou now and again made her more real for me. most of the other people were either complete jerks or completely understanding. i really don't think this was all be due to Lou's simplified worldview, since it was all about how they interacted with him. some people made him at ease, or just knew to pause so he was able to speak about the issue at hand (including the cops that he did not have any kind of long-term interaction with); others were just hostile or condescending.

[Esmoi]

Michelle wrote: " i actually liked Lucia's ambiguity; that she confused Lou now and again made her more real for me."

I think that's a great observation. Maybe that's part of why she stood out to me. The interaction between her and Lou definitely seemed more along the lines of what I've seen happen in real life between autistic people and so-called neurotypicals.

[Carly]

I'm only 1/2 way thru w/ the book but my 2 cents. I think I liked Don's character b/c he seemed the most clear. I mean to Lou's moral logic Don didn't cast any shadow but for me Don was clear as a danger. Unlike some other commenters, I couldn't relate to Emmy. At first I thought she must be autistic too but the books says she isn't. However I don't feel like she's advocating/helping, I feel like she's jealous herself. When the 3rd person sections start, I get a little disoriented and then I acclimate. I neither hate nor love them. I agreed w/ another commenter tho that seeing things from Lou's perspective seemed mainly enough.

[Julia]

I liked very much how Lou was confused at first that Mr. Aldrin would call him at home. He was someone Lou thought of at work, not at home. I liked how he was confused to see Marjory at his grocery store. The woman in his building who does her laundry when he does, she was so upset at his reading the textbook. I didn't care for Emmy, because she hadn't learned or didn't remember the lessons she been taught in courtesy and getting along.

The 3rd person sections I had to search to find. It's not a 3rd person omniscient narrator, that character is similarly absorbed...(Trying not to leave any spoilers.)