Jesus' Son

Jack Hotel is first introduced in the story “Out on Bail” where he is described as wearing “an olive-green three-piece suit, with his blond hair combed back and his face shining and suffering” (29). Jack Hotel is a tragic figure, seemingly doomed from his very first introduction. When F**khead first spots him, he thinks that Hotel is on trial for armed robbery, but it turns out that he’s actually been recently acquitted. Hotel is characterized as a reflection of F**khead and his flaws, as Hotel shares them. However, F**khead also considers him a pathetic figure, writing that his charges and trial make him “frightened that somebody as weak as Hotel should be gifted with something so grand that he couldn’t even bring himself to brag about it” (29). Though F**khead primarily describes Hotel as weak, pathetic, and mean, he also has something that F**khead envies—meaning and a narrative. Hotel’s upcoming prison sentence gives him, to F**khead’s mind, a certain gravity and significance that he himself lacks. Therefore, the revelation of Hotel’s acquittal is treated as a sad moment, rather than a hopeful one.

The comparisons to F**khead continue throughout “Out on Bail,” as well as in “Dundun,” the other story in which Hotel appears. When F**khead and Hotel steal money together, they spend it on heroin, which they split. F**khead and Hotel both overdose from the heroin, but while F**khead lives due to the intervention of his girlfriend and a neighbor, Hotel ends up dying. His death is portrayed as nearly incomprehensible to F**khead, as it had almost happened to him. However, unlike the prison sentence, F**khead does not give Hotel’s death a greater significance. Hotel’s death is pure luck of the draw because people forgot about him and let him die through negligence. Hotel’s characterization as a mirror to F**khead reaches its concluding point, where F**khead sees the frailty of his own existence reflected in the ease of Hotel’s death.

Though Georgie only appears in one story in the collection, his characterization is notable and he serves as a foil to F**khead. Georgie has a substance use disorder and works as an orderly in an emergency room in the story “Emergency.” Georgie’s behavior is portrayed as significantly more erratic than F**khead’s, and he has episodes of hallucinations and panic at work due to his substance use disorder. At one point, Georgie removes a knife from a man’s eye after a doctor tells him to leave it, showing how his disorder impairs his judgment and negatively affects his work with the patients.

In the second half of “Emergency,” F**khead and Georgie go for a drive during a break between shifts, eventually getting lost in a blizzard. During this, F**khead accidentally sits on a litter of baby rabbits that Georgie had rescued, killing them. In this moment, Georgie treats F**khead as if he perpetually makes mistakes, castigating him for killing the rabbits. Georgie’s assessment creates a moment of introspection for F**khead, who wonders whether his repeated mistakes are why everyone calls him his nickname.

Georgie is characterized by a complete lack of self-awareness, and he even tells a hitchhiker that he saves lives. This statement highlights Georgie’s underlying contradictions—he thinks of himself as a competent lifesaver at the same time as he hallucinates at work and harms patients. Georgie’s self-deception is a coping mechanism he has developed in order to maintain his drug addiction and avoid confronting the fact that he has lost control over his drug use. In addition, his role for F**khead is as a warning sign. In his portrayal, he demonstrates the extent to which others view F**khead differently than how he sees himself.