Anne Tyler had said that she used family units to show "how people manage to endure together-how they grate against each other, adjust, intrude, and protect themselves from intrusions, give up, and start all over again in the morning."
             She had also said that there is not one character that she created that she doesn't like.
             The characters in this book are three-dimensional. They all have flaws, but they also have redeeming qualities. The changing PoV helps readers to empathize with the characters. After reading the book, we adore Ezra, but we also come to love Cody and Pearl. The arrow incident, when Pearl was hit by an arrow during a family outing, is a good example of this. We read about the account from Pearl's, Cody's, Ezra's and Beck's perspective. Each one of them has their own interpretation of how that happened, and we come to see that none of the characters are "evil."
             Pearl: strong-willed, determined, not sociable, organized and perfectionist.
             Her stubbornness allows her to bring her children up by hand, but it also makes her a manipulative mother, who tries to plan her children's lives according to what she thinks as 'best.' This oppressive gesture leaves her children with anger, jealousy and not understanding her love for them. She alone pulls the family together, but she contributes in breaking it, too, when her children strive to break away from her presence.
             Cody: not forgiving, irrationally jealous, insecure, responsible husband and father
             The readers may be easily angered by Cody's unforgivingness and his taking Ezra's love away. However, growing up in a family where the father was gone and the mother was abusive and unsociable, Cody's anger and jealousy can be seen as a result of his insecurity and his mother's prejudice in him being a rebellious, 'difficult' child. Cody is a responsib
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