Ass Cocaine and Fairy Dust

Drew is the husband to Sasha and father to Lincoln and Allison. He and his son don’t really quite understand each other, Lincoln is autistic and expresses himself strangely. Although he loves his son, Drew just doesn’t connect, he gets along better with his quirky daughter Allison. Drew has always been at the center of peoples pain (Rob’s jealousy and longing and he and his sons inability to connect) despite the rock he’s been for Sasha and his career as a doctor. He wants to help and connect and sympathize, but seems to be unable.

            Rob contributes to the text by showing us the damaging effects that high levels of inner turmoil can cause. 

            Rhea contributes to the text by teaching us how encounters and interactions with other people are bound to change your life and who you are.

Jules is the Brother to Stephanie, he suffers from a condition. Before this was realized, he was a failing reporter in New York dishing out bad celebrity articles for his column. And during an interview with Kitty Jackson, he attempted to rape her. He did jail time and now lives with his sister in upstate New York. Jules represents a wanting.  Not even a lust, he didn’t feel just lust for Kitty, he wanted to bury himself inside her atoms and pick her apart devouring the girl whole. Jules wanted human connection, something he obviously was not feeling prior to his attack.

The general is a horrible foreign dictator, along the lines of Castro and Saddam Hussein. He has recently employed La Doll to improve his image with the population of his dictatorship and the world, the plan to pose him with an American actress (Kitty) goes horribly awry and he keeps Kitty. The General represents a looming danger, the inability to feel safe or comforted, much like the world is uncertain and full of travesties. The broad scale panic and widespread fear that the General carried with him helps set the tone for the era, as its relevant for the time. But also take a look at a woman (La Doll) who is willing to betray her country and put the lives of citizens (including her daughter) in danger, and still sympathize with her struggles and actions.

Sasha represents a need for comfort and a closeness to others that she either lost in Naples or with rob or as a child or perhaps never did have either way its rooted in a lack of consistency in her life growing up and thought her young adulthood. It’s why she steals what she steals and who she steals from. Time shows her coping and mellowing out her condition, going from turning tricks as a teen to making junk sculptures for her desert garden from insignificant items she’s kept. Time has slowed her down, allowing her to finally find consistency and balance.

Jocelyn represents loss of innocence, and how after a while so much is erased of the original self there is nothing to return to but a husk and hazy memories. Time swallowed her up and she became too lost in her memories to move on and forward in her life like everyone else from her youth did, or at least attempted to.

Allison’s narration through power point takes a huge leap in the theme of technology’s role in story telling. Her ability to tell a coherent story through limited words and symbols demonstrates to the reader how technology can not only play a role in the content of the stories and the lives of the character, but also in the way the story is told. Allison’s narration also gives the reader a closer on how Sasha’s life plays out. Through Allison the reader is able to see that Sasha ended up having a comfortable life with two kids, and a loving husband, but leading a very simple existence.

Stephanie helps further the plot by giving context to Bennie’s marriage as well as another look Jules, a loving perspective. Stephanie presents the idea that people desperately need to fit in. Even though Stephanie dislikes the country club and it’s members she would rather be part of it and miserable than not have a place to belong. Stephanie also shows the reader the downside to rationalizing poor decisions, she lies to her husband and her “friend” to better herself, but rationalizes that it’s for them. Stephanie is a character that pays for her consequences and continues on with life. The reader is unable to see how time treats Stephanie after the chapter she narrates.

Lulu is Dolly's daughter who goes to an expensive school that Dolly has to work constantly to pay for. She seems to be almost ashamed of her mother because of 'The Accident' at 'The Party' which ended Dolly with some jail time. Lulu makes another appearance in the final chapter of the book. She meets Alex and is filled with the latest technological lingo. She symbolizes the younger generation being overcome with social media and technology.

Alice was friends with Bennie Salazar and Scotty when they were teenagers in a punk band called the "Flaming Dildos". She is rich and pretty, and Rhea says she is not a "real" punk, although Rhea doesn't feel like one herself and doesn't seem to know what a real punk is. She has an obsession with frogs, which Rhea discovers when she is hanging out with Alice in her room. The fact that no one in the group knew about her love of frogs shows her detachment from the rest of the group. Alice has a crush on Scotty, and they end up getting married then divorced. Having an unsuccessful marriage with Alice is part of what makes Scotty feel like a failure.

Dolly fits into the story as Stephanie's boss. She looks as if she's been digitally altered with her bright blond bob cut, bold lipstick, and "algorithmic" eyes. She's kind of a jerk, but she owns it and it does not bother her when people point it out. She is a major workaholic. The point of Dolly's character in the book is to emphasize the theme of redemption. She was once a high level publicist,but after the horrible accident (when she is sued for spilling hot oil on a party with 500 guests) that causes her to lose everything, she realizes there is more to life than fame and money. However, one has to question whether she really redeems herself or not when she takes a job from The General in her desperation