50 pages • 1-hour read
Highly Illogical Behavior
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Chapters 8-10
Part 1: “Spring
Chapter 8 Summary: “Lisa Praytor”
Just off the phone with Solomon, Lisa is surprised by her own success. Her surprise leads to initial disbelief that “maybe this kid would be easier to help than she’d expected” (49). She calls Clark at his dad’s house to share the news. Initially, Clark expresses some jealousy, but Lisa reassures him by visiting him. At school the next day, Lisa researches “agoraphobia,” which she assumes is Solomon’s diagnosis. She suspects that Solomon will defend his choice to stay indoors as the best decision for himself, but she resolves that “there’s a thin line between accepting one’s fears and giving in to them altogether” (51). Lisa acknowledges that it will be difficult at times to be his counselor disguised as a friend but believes that curing Solomon will make any wrongs right in the end. Lisa decides to be patient with her experiment and resolves herself to think of the goal when the process becomes complicated.
Then, Lisa is outside of Solomon’s house with baked cookies. This is the moment she has been planning for, but there is still much unknown. When Solomon opens the door for her, she is struck by how normal he seems, and even how handsome he is. Solomon gives Lisa a brief tour of the house, spurred on by her questions. She discovers that Solomon’s room is completely white and blank but filled with books. Initially, their conversation is stinted by the awkwardness of the first encounter, but soon Solomon laughs and Lisa senses “that he was starting to appreciate her humor. And he seemed a little less anxious than when she’d arrived. Complete sentences were a good sign” (55). Solomon brings Lisa into the garage, which is designed like a holodeck from Star Trek—a simulation space to figure out puzzles. This is where Solomon says he goes to imagine other worlds, but when he invites Lisa to participate in creating fantasies, she starts to get nervous that there is more wrong with Solomon than she had thought. Lisa isn’t “sacred of him, not at all. She was just suddenly realizing that maybe she couldn’t help him” (57). Solomon reveals he is messing with Lisa and that his sense of humor is just as sharp as hers.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Solomon Reed”
On their way out of the garage, Lisa talks about Clark and casually confides to Solomon that “he doesn’t like to get too serious. It’s a problem, really, but I’m working on it” (59). She shows Solomon a picture of her with Clark and Solomon seems intimidated by the image of popular high schoolers. Lisa assures him high school is not as brutal as the movies, but Solomon points out that Lisa says even Clark needs to hide his comics from his own friends. Solomon and Lisa joke around, but she doesn’t stay for long. This comes as a relief to Solomon. He socializes with Lisa, but the minute she leaves he goes into a full panic attack. The attack grips him physically and emotionally. With panic attacks, Solomon sometimes wonders “if maybe his chest would explode. Other times, he wondered if that would make it all better” (61). When his mother asks him about Lisa, he tries not to reveal too much.
The next morning, Solomon is awakened by a rumbling of the Earth. Frightened, he discovers that men are bulldozing in the backyard, presumably for Solomon’s new swimming pool. Shaken from the difficult wakeup and anxious about strangers in his space, Solomon reflects on how his parents are trying to support him through something he is sure he cannot get over. He wonders if he really could go out to the pool, then thinks back to his mother’s eagerness to introduce Lisa. Solomon realizes that Lisa has “no idea what she meant to them […] She probably felt like some stranger invading their personal space […] but she could very well end up saving them all” (63). While he’s reflecting on these serious new changes and trying to avoid another panic attack, Lisa calls to make plans with him for Saturday. Solomon realizes that this means, almost officially, that he now has a friend.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Lisa Praytor”
Lisa Praytor is so driven and intelligent that when she was a freshman she passed an AP psychology course meant for juniors and seniors. Lisa’s interest in psychology is a passion, something to motivate her intellectually and propel her exit from a life like her mother’s. Lisa “believed in herself maybe more than other people believe in God or the devil or Heaven or Hell” (66). She runs into her mom at their home, a surprise given how much her mom works and how often she avoids going to the house because of her husband Ron.
Lisa’s mother is curled up on the couch and they have a brief conversation in which Lisa’s mother says she is sick, but Lisa can tell she’s actually sad. Lisa suspects that her stepfather Ron, who hasn’t been around for days, will eventually be out of her mom’s life for good. Her mom says she just needs a good cry to get back to normal. Lisa wonders what her mother’s idea of normal is when their brief exchange is “the longest conversation she’d had with her daughter in months” (68). Lisa escapes her mother’s house to go to Clark at his mom’s house, where Clark is playing basketball with his younger sister.
Lisa and Clark go to his room, where Lisa tries to initiate sex but Clark refuses, telling her that he’s not ready. Lisa is so embarrassed by the situation that “She thought she might cry, but she didn’t do that often and it always took more out of her than it was worth” (70). Clark and Lisa hold each other tight to comfort one another, then fall asleep in each other’s arms.
They awake around 7:30 with a shock—Lisa believes that Clark’s mother will be angry that Lisa has been sleeping in Clark’s room with the door closed. Clark announces Lisa’s presence to his mom, unembarrassed, and Lisa is invited to stay for dinner. When she leaves, Lisa tells Clark she’ll be seeing Solomon on Saturday and eases his envy by telling him that he shares an interest in Star Trek with him. As she drives away, Lisa contemplates that “maybe she could use Clark’s jealousy to her benefit” (74) by ingratiating him into Solomon’s life too, thereby possibly speeding up the process of getting Solomon better.
Chapters 8-10 Analysis
Chapters 8 through 10 reveal a great deal more about Lisa Praytor’s character development. Her deep desire to become a woman unlike her mother is highlighted in the way they deal with their struggles with men. Whaley poses a striking opposition between the two when in Chapter 10 Lisa’s mother says that she needs a “good cry” to feel better, while Lisa holds back her tears in Clark’s bedroom because crying “always took more out of her than it was worth.” Whaley uses this contrast to encourage the reader to think more critically about Lisa’s desire for perfection. The reader sees that Lisa may not be as tough as she seems, trying hard to suppress her natural emotional state because she has learned through example that crying solves nothing.
This new layer of Lisa is challenged by Lisa’s idea to include Clark in her scheme with Solomon, because it seems more and more that Lisa is using the people in her life to get what she wants rather than interacting with them from a genuine place of concern. Whaley wants the reader to wonder if this character flaw is also a product of her development under an unstable mother figure. Whaley thus also raises the possibility that Lisa will be cured in her own way too.
Chapters 8 through 10 also reveal a new layer to Solomon. Although his panic attacks and acute anxiety are highlighted after Lisa’s visit, Lisa discovers that Solomon has a sharp sense of humor. It turns out that Solomon has personality traits that are interesting, pleasant, and multilayered as opposed to the weird misanthrope his former schoolmates might suspect.
Lisa is pleasantly surprised to find that Solomon is handsome, personable, and has many interests. Solomon surprises himself in his ability to entertain and socialize with Lisa during her visit. Although the visit sets off a panic attack, Solomon seems to be approaching an interesting turning point in his character development: confront his fears and potentially have a happier life or run away from his fears and maintain only semi-comfortable stasis. The pool currently under construction adds complex symbolism in this character development. Solomon’s permanent homelife starts when he dives into a fountain of water at his middle school. Solomon’s new life with Lisa also begins with a pool. Solomon’s reflection that Lisa could be the one to save the happiness of his family mirrors Lisa’s use of other people for her happiness. Solomon already understands the power of welcoming a friend into his life and home, but Lisa’s presence extends stability for his entire family, implying that Solomon now needs Lisa as much as Lisa need Solomon.
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