Amy Robinson - Boyish figure, has always had bad luck, had a failed marriage, practices criminal law
Jan Huebner - Not pretty, wears too much makeup
Karen Burns - Murdered the year before, died single, was a hopeful person
Marv Bertel - Likes Spook Spinelli
Spook Spinelli - Danced with Billy, in a double marriage
Billy McMann - Hates and loves Dorothy, owns a chain of hardware stores
Dorothy Stier - Knows that Billy loves her, has a husband an kids, had breast cancer
Ellie Abbott - Depressed, married to a man named Mark, leaves the reunion early, something happened between her and Harmon
David Todd - Lost his leg, divorced from Marla, wants Marla back, leaves the reunion early
Marla Dempsey - Owns a furniture business, smokes, insecure about her body
Paulette Haslo - Minister, former basketball player, gets very drunk at the reunion
Harmon Osterberg - Drowned during previous summer, dentist
All of these characters have shallow, flawed personalities. Thirty-one years after graduating college they are still caught up in their college crushes, flings, and relationships. They spend the party conversing about "Death, marriage, children, divorce, betrayal, loss, grief, disease..."(7). Many of this topics are very unpleasant to talk about. A few people even contemplate the cause of death of fellow classmates Karen and Harmon. They are so self absorbed that they are unaware of the affect their conversations are having on others. "Ellie was hoping that Marla would stop talking about their classmate Harmon Osterberg, who had drowned last summer..."(10). In this chapter it is made clear that something happened between Harmon and Ellie that makes the topic of his death uncomfortable for her. Another topic of conversation is relationships. As old classmates talk amongst one other, a few of them attempt to revive past relationships. "...David found it impossible to believe that [he and Marla] would not somehow end up living together..."(12). David and Marla, however, were already married and got divorced. David is desperate for a woman who he cannot have. All in all, idea that I got out of this chapter is that none of the characters are happy with their life. They therefore attempt to revive their past lives in hope of being happy again.
So far I like the writing style of the book. O'Brien uses a good mixture of description and dialogue to tell the story. He also uses a third person omniscient point of view so the reader can hear the thoughts of all of the characters. I do not like the characters themselves because of their shallowness. I am, however, looking forward to learning about what happened to each of the members of the graduating class of '69 between 1969 and 2000 to change them into the people they are in the first chapter.
