I got a lot of positive reaction to the chapters about summer camp with the army. I must not have screwed it up too much. Thanks to all the constructive critics, and that is a serious thanks! I had huge amounts of help from vets. If I screw something up, it’s my fault, not theirs!
What surprised me the most was the considerable number of emails saying that Carl should dump Marilyn. Several people thought that her hitting him and calling him an asshole was beyond the pale, and he didn’t need this kind of grief. Hey guys, you’re overthinking things! He insulted her, she got pissed, she called him names, they got back together again. It happens all the time, and probably happens in every single relationship, even the great ones.
On the other hand, I got several responses saying how I had screwed up by having Carl make the mistake in the first place. These broke down into two types: A) Carl is a genius and would never do something so dumb, and; B) Carl is so good and wise he would never make a mistake like that. Well, there are two responses to that. First, lots of really smart people do stupid shit, and while Carl hasn’t made the old mistakes again, he is certainly capable of making new ones. Secondly, and in some ways more importantly, Carl is human. He is not some sort of wise demi-god. He puts his pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us. In fact, on occasion he manages to screw that up, get his pants on wrong, and falls flat on his face. This was certainly one of those times.
There is a dark part of Carl’s soul. In some of the later chapters we get to explore that, and some of the readers will not like what is there. He’s simply a human, generally good, not perfect, and as fucked up as the rest of us.