The Boy from the Woods

“Wilde was Matthew’s godfather. When David died, Wilde had been there. He answered the call, stepped up his role in Matthew’s life. He wasn’t a father or stepfather or anything like that. But Wilde was there, more as an involved uncle, and Hester and Laila had been grateful, believing, sexist as this might sound, that Matthew still needed a man in his life.

How would the romantic relationship between Laila and Wilde affect Matthew?”

This quote represents one of Wilde’s major roles in the novel and the themes of Biological, Adoptive, and Chosen Family and The Tension Between Love and Grief. After David’s death, Wilde becomes a father figure for Matthew, but in a tenuous, liminal way—his personal relationship with Matthew is a parental one, but he has no legal standing to support this. Therefore, any changes within the Crimstein family—for example, Laila dating someone, whether or not this someone is Wilde—can affect both Wilde’s standing in the family and, by extension, his relationship with and influence over Matthew.

“He loved history, always had, though he had no interest, thank you very much, in being a part of it.”

Dash Maynard is always filming—his “interest” in history has always been through a viewfinder or camera lens. However, he prefers the role of voyeur to actor and has little practice in the spotlight. This quote foreshadows the significance of Dash’s video footage in the Rusty plotline.

“Dash loved research and interviews and on-location filming, but he’d excelled in the editing room, able to take countless hours of video and turn it into a compelling narrative.”

This quote speaks to the symbolism of cameras as “truth.” As a documentarian and producer, Dash’s video footage is meant to convey the universal truth of history—in essence, documenting what happens in as natural a way as possible. However, the act of editing and organizing a narrative—as well as the limitations of the scope of the footage—actually turns this truth from “objective” to “manufactured,” which becomes a significant plot point throughout the novel.

“‘You have no legal standing, Mr. Wilde.’ The use of his name threw him, but only for a millisecond. He’d shown his driver’s license at the gate. ‘You’re not the boy’s father, are you?’”

This quote introduces Gavin Chambers as a foil and antagonist to Wilde. It also emphasizes Wilde’s tenuous role as a father figure: While he serves as a parental role model for Matthew, he has neither the legal nor the biological standing to back his role. This question of legal/biological/chosen family is also explored in more depth in Naomi’s plotline.

“‘We have CCTV in the basement area,’ Gavin replied.

‘So you saw it?’

‘I did. Sadly, that particular footage no longer exists. Accidental deletion. You know how it is.’”

Here, Gavin’s expertise with surveillance equipment references the symbolism of cameras as “truth.” He has documented evidence of the incontrovertible truth that Crash is a bully and has attacked Matthew; however, his erasure of the footage turns this reality into a false-but-convenient manufactured “truth” that nothing happened. This helps the Maynards turn a blind eye to Crash’s toxic behavior and hints at Gavin’s own web of connections—he can turn the tides in his favor whenever he wants.

“Should Wilde, a man who enjoyed living off the grid, a man who really couldn’t connect to most people, open the door to meeting strangers who could claim him as blood and thrust themselves into his life?

Did he want that?

What possible good could come from learning about his past?”

Here, Wilde takes the theme of Biological, Adoptive, and Chosen Family in a slightly different direction. Abandoned in the woods as a child, Wilde has usually written off his murky past, choosing instead to focus on the human connections in his present. However, his DNA test results bring his origins to the forefront, forcing him to face his ghosts. In this, he contrasts with Hester, whose fixation on the past prevents her from contemplating her future.

“The pod was also easy to put on a trailer and move, something Wilde did every few weeks or months, even if the move was only fifty or a hundred yards. At this stage of the game, it was probably overkill to move that often, but when his home stayed in one place too long, it felt to him as though the pod (and thus he himself?) were taking root.

He didn’t like that.”

Wilde’s Ecocapsule symbolizes his sense of comfort and safety. Its association with the woods means that it is the only place Wilde feels truly comfortable, as it is isolated and separate from human society. Likely stemming from his abandonment trauma, Wilde also has difficulty connecting with adults and settling down, so its portability allows him to feel transient and rootless, much like he was as when he was discovered as a child.

“Why would you get rid of your messages with your own daughter?”

Here, Wilde supplants Bernard Pine as a father figure to Naomi—though Wilde again has no legal or biological connection to Naomi, he fills the role better than Naomi’s adoptive father does. He notices Naomi’s missing belongings and the suspicious lack of communication between them, which suggests that Bernard has secrets that might impede justice. This suggestion foreshadows the revelation that Bernard is abusive and manipulative.

“He often warned Matthew that he would bring up his father, like it or not. He didn’t do it to appease David’s ghost or any of that—dead was dead in Wilde’s worldview—but for Matthew. He had been robbed of his father. It doesn’t mean he should be robbed of the memory or influence.”

This quote speaks to the theme of Biological, Adoptive, and Chosen Family. Here, Wilde acknowledges the limits of his abilities as a parental figure. Though he may serve as a role model for Matthew as his godfather, he can never truly replace David, nor does he want to. His references to David are his way of ensuring that Matthew continues to have a relationship with him, even if it is only in spirit.

“Of course I still think about her—but not like that. We were married for twenty-eight years. Do you still think of Ira?”

Oren’s conversations with Hester, when not obviously flirting, often center around romance. While Oren has not suffered the traumas that Hester has, he is willing to meet her where she is and support her as she needs. The major lesson he continues to teach her throughout the novel is that a new relationship doesn’t erase the old, a fear she avoids acknowledging and that keeps her from moving on from her grief.

“Wilde rarely traveled on this stretch of highway. Too many bad memories. When the driver took the curve, the same curve David’s car had taken so many years ago, Wilde felt his hand grip the seat. He eased his breathing. The small white cross was still there, something Hester probably would have found unnerving if not ironic. Wilde had no idea who had put it there all those years ago. He’d been tempted to remove it—it had been there too long—but who was he to intervene?”

This quote hints at the myriad reasons why Wilde avoids human connections. It foreshadows his involvement with David’s death and his own repressed grief. It also hints at the complications of his relationship with the Crimsteins, though the reason why is explained at the end of the novel.

“Hester was left with the flutters. Just that. The flutters. Last night now felt surreal, like a dream, and she wasn’t sure whether this feeling was something she longed for or something she feared. Did she need this in her life?”

Hester struggles with her romantic attraction to Oren. Though she enjoys their budding relationship, she shies away from the change it brings to her otherwise quotidian life and her fixation on the past. As such, she has yet to reconcile romance and grief, trapping her in an anxious cycle of her own making.

“Hester interjected, ‘I’m now officially [the Maynards’] attorney. What you divulge to me gets locked away under attorney-client privilege. In short, no one can compel me to reveal what you’re about to say. Mr. Chambers here doesn’t get that same legal recourse. He can, like it or not, be compelled to reveal the contents of this conversation. So I want him out.’ Hester glanced to her right. ‘You too, Wilde. Skedaddle.’”

Hester is a very successful attorney in part because of her straightforward attitude and her rejection of subtleties. Her rejection of Gavin and Wilde due to attorney-client privilege draws the first lines of in- and out-groups in the Rusty plotline, as well as the significance of secrets and confidentiality in relation to justice. However, this strict adherence to attorney-client privilege will later come back to haunt her.

“‘There’s nothing important,’ Delia said.

‘Then contact the FBI.’

‘We can’t.’

‘Which suggests that you have something to hide. Sorry, I’m not great with subtle, so let me get right to it: I think you’re lying. Worse, you’re lying to me. So let me make this clear. I don’t care what you’re hiding or what’s on those tapes. If I know about it and I’m your attorney? It stays secret.’”

Although Hester is a competent and trustworthy lawyer, her work—and therefore justice for Crash—is hampered by the Maynards’ secrets. Their insistence on hiding the contents of the incriminating tapes will also come back to haunt them, as their lack of communication will result in Crash’s severed finger.

“I’d scream, I’d shout, I’d reveal everything. That’s where all our paradox theories would go out the window. If I could go back in time, if I could reveal a truth and it would bring my son back to me, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Do you understand?”

Here, Hester’s lingering trauma of losing her son manifests in a positive way—she is able to connect with Delia in a way that even Dash cannot: mother to mother. Hester’s advice to Delia reflects her own sentiments about David’s sudden death—if she could have saved him, she would have. In this way, Delia has a chance to witness and prevent a possible future outcome of Crash’s kidnapping; this will lead her to comply with the ransom demand.

“‘He knew, Hester. Rusty knew.’

‘Knew what?’

‘That Dash Maynard would never really delete it. Dash sees himself as a serious documentarian or journalist or something. An observer. I wouldn’t be surprised if even that conversation was recorded. I’m telling you. There were bugs everywhere. Maybe even in that bathroom.’”

Dash’s obsession with the “truth” ironically leads to his downfall. Though he prefers to be the “observer” rather than the subject of his videos, his preservation of the incriminating footage forces him into the spotlight in the public’s demand for Secrets, Revelations, and Justice. Rusty uses this to his advantage to identify and get rid of potentially damaging witnesses as well, thereby twisting the “truth” in his favor.

“He constantly berates [the media] and so they cringe and get scared, to keep within the metaphor, to blow the whistle. All politicians do it, of course. Rusty is just better at it.”

While Dash focuses on the camera portion of the symbolism, Rusty’s specialty is the “truth”; namely, manufacturing a “truth” that best suits him. Rusty’s ability to manipulate the media therefore leaves the reader wondering how much the supposedly incriminating footage in Dash’s vault will actually hurt Rusty’s public perception.

“‘There’s been no one since Ira.’

‘Then it’s about time,’ Wilde said.”

As Hester continues to struggle with The Tension Between Love and Grief, others encourage her to move on. Meanwhile, Laila is already in the process of doing so; Hester struggles to understand this, as she still cannot. This struggle builds the inner tension of her character arc.

“‘It’s just a car accident on Mountain Road…’

This all made sense now. Hester considered herself neither pessimist nor optimist, but she knew somehow that this couldn’t work, that the happy bubble she’d been in with Oren last night had to be too fragile not to burst. Now she understood. Oren had been there that tragic night. Like it or not, he was entangled in the worst moment of her life—and there was no way to change that. She would see Oren, maybe kiss him, maybe hold him, and she would always be transported back to that horrible night.

How could any relationship survive that?”

Hester’s internal struggle climaxes with this quote, as her flashback reveals why her relationship with Oren is so interconnected with her grief for her son; he was present when David died. Because Hester is so fixated on the loss of her son and fears that her happiness will negate his memory, she chooses her son over her future, locking herself in her cycle of grief rather than opening herself up to the future.

“I said I wanted to make a total change. I wanted to do something so big it would erase my past and I could start again.”

Naomi, on the other hand, refuses to remain stuck in her cycle of misery. Although Wilde doesn’t yet know the truth, Naomi has found her escape route through Ava, her biological mother. In this way, Naomi creates a new family for herself that will allow her to grow rather than shrink into her mountain of stuffed animals—she has found true comfort and no longer needs to rely on an inferior material substitute.

“Wilde thought about the tape. He thought about Rusty Eggers. But mostly he thought about Raymond Stark’s dream of being free. How soul-crushing it must be, on the cusp before you wake up, when you realize your release was just a dream, when you know the wisps of hope will soon be gone and you’ll be back in that cell.”

Wilde’s understanding of the relationship between Secrets, Revelations, and Justice in the Rusty plotline is difficult to accept—after learning Raymond’s story, he wants to help the man, but he also realizes that Raymond is not the priority for those who could enact his release. The Maynards only care about retrieving their son, while Rusty only cares about furthering his career. In this case, justice is ideal but likely impossible.

“‘I liked his idea of tearing down the social order to rebuild, but as I spent more time with him, it became clear that Rusty doesn’t want to rebuild. Rusty wants to destroy this country. He wants to pull us apart by the seams.’

‘We two old men don’t agree on much,’ Saul said. ‘I’m on one side of the political aisle. Gavin is on the other. But we are both Americans.’

‘Our views, opposite as they might seem, are in the realm of normalcy.’

‘That’s not what Rusty wants. Rusty wants to make everyone choose a side, turn everyone into an extremist.’”

Here, Gavin and Saul exemplify Rusty’s beloved theory of horseshoe politics: They have opposing political viewpoints but come together to take Rusty down. The irony is that they become extremists themselves—kidnapping Crash and cutting off his finger—to achieve their goal, in essence doing exactly what Rusty wants.

“Dash Maynard had committed felonies that night by moving the dead body. Hester had wanted to work Raymond Stark’s case pro bono, but unfortunately, she couldn’t because of the conflict of interest in her representing the Maynards. Her hands were also tied. She wanted Dash more than anything to come forward, but as his attorney, she had to advise him against it.

The system was flawed, but it was still the system.”

Hester is very by the book and adheres to tradition; as such, she follows the American legal system even as she acknowledges its problems. However, she also seeks justice for those in need, like Raymond. Up until now, Hester could easily attain victory for her clients, but she is now in a bind—she can’t enact justice for Raymond because she is bound to keep the Maynards’ secrets. If they are unwilling to authenticate the truth, there is nothing she can do—she is powerless because of the flaws of the very system she upholds.