Fasting, Feasting

Chapters 20 to 25 help develop our understanding of the dysfunctional Patton household, exploring both Arun’s alienation and the troubling distance and chill between every member of the household. For example, Melanie spends hours alone monopolizing the television and munching on peanuts, ignoring the rest of the family and exiling Arun with cold stares into the solitude of his own room. Through his bedroom window, he secretly watches Rod, the athletic and muscular Patton son, dripping with sweat, forage for leftover meat on the smoldering grill. From the same window later that evening, he catches a raccoon foraging and stealing the food waste from the Patton’s trashcans. Later that evening, he discovers Melanie vomiting in the toilet, purging that day’s supply of binge eating. 

In Chapter 21, Arun misses the bus home and is forced to make the long trek. He sees Rod out for one of his frequent jogs along the road. Rod invites him along to jog, but Arun, frail and underdeveloped, politely deflects the invitation. Arriving home that evening, he smells tacos and hears the sounds of a baseball game in the living room. He longs to join the men, but instead joins