Minor Characters
Norma
Dwight’s eldest daughter, a beautiful and sweet girl that Jack has a crush on.
Skipper
Dwight’s eldest son.
Terry Silver
One of Jack’s friends in Seattle. A clever but malicious child, Silver harbors anti-Semitic feelings and enjoys looking up people with Jewish-looking last names in the phone book and prank calling them in fake German.
Terry Taylor
One of Jack’s friends in Seattle.
Sister James
A kind nun who teaches Jack’s catechism classes in Utah. She seems to intuit that something is not right in Jack’s home life, and attempts to help him and offer him a chance to talk about his problems, but he dodges her attempts to get through to him.
Jerry Huff
A vain bully who is one of Jack’s friends in high school.
Psycho
A “big and stupid and peculiar” boy who is one of Jack’s friends in high school.
Bobby Crow
Norma’s high school sweetheart.
Kenneth
Norma’s husband. An obnoxious contrarian whom everyone in the family hates.
Marian
The housekeeper at the boarding house where Jack and Rosemary first live in Seattle. She eventually moves into a ramshackle house on the city’s outskirts with the two of them and a woman named Kathy.
Kathy
One of Rosemary and Jack’s roommates in Seattle.
Gil
A shady man who briefly dates Rosemary.
Mr. Mitchell
The civics teacher at Jack’s high school. An ex-military man who fought in World War II, Mr. Mitchell also teaches PE and organizes annual boxing matches in which the general public pays to watch the boys “beat the bejesus out of each other.”
Mr. Bolger
Chuck Bolger’s father, a preacher who agrees to take Jack in for several months after Dwight attacks him.
Father Karl
An Episcopalian minister who preaches in Chinook every few weeks. After Jack and Chuck Bolger get into trouble over at Mr. and Mrs. Welch’s, Mr. Bolger enlists Father Karl to talk with the boys, hoping that a discussion about religion will help them to stay out of trouble.