V--2nd how about that ending, eh?

[Michael Bailey]

plus, the specificity of the experiences from which he says he hasn't
learned a gd thing is those specifically male experiences that Brenda
(and earlier, Rachel) has referred to.

these uneducative pursuits would include the solo yoyoing and group
rollicking, alligator- and con(~)o-hunting, a-and military service --
so the fact that he hasn't learned anything from that basically means
he's not permanently warped, eh?

I'm not expecting you to be totally convinced - but nobody ever has
mentioned this interpretation, afaik...

I'm perhaps a little biased in favor of a cheery reading (like that
Barbra Streisand movie where she gets that gloomy-Gus writer to stop
using phrases like "dawn spat at the city")

so, referring back to and ringing a change on the "ordered pairs" idea:

what is possible in fiction is for the function to go the other way:

y = f(x)
the independent variable x is what the author wants to say, and the
dependent variable, y, is the real-world facts selected to illustrate
it.

If Paola chooses to give Pappy another chance, that's a purely
fictitious element, and to place it amid the abuse already mentioned
and the many horrors of history makes it all the more poignant and
notable...and, I'm suggesting, you could read it as pretty huge.