Things We Never Got Over

The best and worst thing to happen to Knox was the lightning-strike miracle of hitting an $11 million state lottery payout. Money, he believes, gives him control over life and allows him to fix others’ problems and make them happy. He erroneously believes that money can buy happiness.

It is a cliché, but Knox eventually learns that money can’t buy stability, love, or meaning. For most of the novel, Knox throws money at problems and makes them worse as a result. Most notably, when Knox breaks up with Naomi because he cannot be the man she needs, he gives her an envelope stuffed with money as a farewell.

Knox comes to realize that money cannot fix his problems, which include his mother’s death in a car wreck, his father’s alcohol addiction, and his strained relationship with his brother. Isolated from his loved ones, he retreats into a world of perfect escape. This includes his backroom office with its security lock and his secluded log cabin that he shares with his dog. He relinquishes any interest in relationships and fends off his brother by picking fights. He is a part of life in Knockemout and yet apart from that life. Knox believes he doesn’t need anyone else until he sees Naomi with the flower in her hair. Life, he learns, needs to be lived with other people.

Like Naomi, Knox comes to terms with his fears. At first, he denies his feelings for Naomi and tells himself it is just about sex. His name evokes Fort Knox, often referenced idiomatically for its impenetrable defenses. Knox is inspired by Naomi’s resilient spirit, her courage to greet rather than retreat from challenges, and her unapologetic devotion to her family and Waylay. At once tender and tough, as much romantic and sexual, Knox evolves to be compassionate, vulnerable, and loving as well. He promises Naomi to love her and be the kind of man she can love, an inconceivable resolution for the crabby, grumpy loner Naomi meets when she first arrives in Knockemout.

It is easy to be charmed by Waylay and her scrappy nature, precocious sensibility, snappy repartee, whip-sharp confidence, aptitude with computer gadgets, and savvy resourcefulness. It is easy to forget her emotional trauma because she doesn’t show it. She was raised by an indifferent and often cruel mother who abandoned her with no explanation, and who weaponizes her child to further her life of petty crime. After a brief time with Naomi, Waylay fears she will be exiled to the foster care system. She struggles to understand why her mother left her and clings to Naomi although they just met. She quickly and effortlessly upcycles Naomi into the mother she always wanted.

The key to Waylay’s character is her odd name. To waylay someone is to present an obstacle that makes moving forward impossible. Until Naomi’s arrival, Waylay sees herself as an afterthought, a distraction, and a problem for her insensitive and selfish mother. But Tina is the only mother she has known, and she hasn’t experienced unconditional maternal love. Because of Tina’s abuse—Waylay admits to Naomi that her hair is cut so short because Tina chopped her hair as punishment—Waylay is guarded in her emotions and hides her hurt behind the persona of the streetwise kid. As the daughter of the town’s most notorious character, Waylay grows up alone, mocked by other students, and, in the case of the toxic Mrs. Felch, punished by adults. Her emotional rescue by Naomi (and Knox) gives Waylay the confidence to trust, love, and hope.