Quote 1
"The Madman Underground is all about how much everybody needs each other, and hauling my ass out of here is all about not needing anybody. And the Madman Underground is all about telling your story to people who already heard it and like you anyway, and I want to live someplace where I can have my story, not just some things that happened to me." (20.42)
Karl fortunately comes to the realization that he's never going to be normal, and since that's the case, he might as well keep his friends and the unique yet bizarre situation they have.
Quote 2
"You said you will have one day," I said, calculating, "but you met my mother on Thursday night—"
"And then got so chickenshit-scared that I got drunk after work on Friday and didn't wake up till ten A.M. Saturday. Scared she'd turn me down, scared I'd get there and she would have forgotten, mostly just scared. If there was ever a good reason to stop drinking it's having done something that stupid." (22.58-59)
Bill is a good example of what alcohol does to people—it makes you scared of facing life, which just makes you drink more. Little does Bill know that his decision to get drunk rather than go to Put-in-Bay with Beth actually causes her to get drunk as well.
Quote 3
"Coach," I said, "my parents were screwed-up people who drank together a lot […] Mom and Dad had drunk fights and drunk make-ups and drunk sex, and I was scared to death a lot of the time. They tucked me in when they were drunk, and I got myself cereal while they sat at the breakfast table holding their heads and groaning about their hangovers. They loved me and they fought each other and they did stupid things." (26.102)
So, what does all this boil down to? At the end of the day, alcohol has been a part of Karl's life since he was a little kid. Ugh, right? In this way, alcohol is the cause of all the problems Karl faces—it probably played a role in killing his dad, it's wrecked his mom, and ultimately, both of them tried to take Karl down with them, too.
Quote 4
I shrugged. "Well, s***, I want out of Lightsburg. I'll always be the Shoemaker boy, here. And I'm not one of your peace-and-love never-comb-your-hair never-take-a-bath never-finish-a-sentence just be-be-be me-me-me free-free-free and love-me-'cause-I'm-so-mellow-groove-a-delic hippie freak types, anyway. A reliable paycheck with free bed and food, and a ticket out of town for good? And all they want me to do is char some babies? Well, all right then, a deal's a deal, line up the cradles, hand me the flamethrower, and fetch me the barbecue sauce." (8.92)
Ever live in a sibling's shadow? Worse, have you ever lived in a parent's shadow? Karl is doomed to forever be known in Lightsburg as "the mayor's kid"—make that "the drunken ex-mayor who wouldn't give his blessing to the plastic development neighborhood project's kid." What's really sad is that in a time when joining the Army was what most kids his age were trying to avoid, Karl is ready to hit the road for Vietnam tomorrow if they'd let him.
Quote 5
She opened the waffle iron and dumped out two perfect waffles. "How do you know when they're ready?" I asked.
She grinned. "Ancient secret, Tiger Sweetie. You get married very young. You get a waffle iron as a wedding present and you have a husband that you think the sun rises on, and very shortly after a little boy that you think it rises and sets on, and they both love waffles. Then you make about ten thousand burned waffles—and about ten thousand half raw ones—while your husband gamely eats them, and your little boy doesn't care." (19.32-33)
Quote 6
"While he was dying, I was around Dad all the time. He showed me how to fix everything around the house […] all that stuff he'd been good at once, and was good at again now that he wasn't drinking. We'd do stuff all day and he'd add it to that list that—the list that used to be on my wall, and then we'd sit and watch old stupid movies together. He used to do that when he was drunk with Mom, but now he did it with me. He was dying, but life was better than it ever had been. I loved that." (26.104-105)
Dang. This is probably the saddest passage in a book that's packed with a whole lot of sad—the happiest time of Karl's life was when his dad was dying. Really, it seems like that was the closest he came to living anything that resembled a normal life … and losing a parent is about as abnormal as it gets.
Quote 7
"Cheryl is always saying to remember Dad liked my company and did spend all that time with me. Squid tells me how lucky I was to have a great dad for that long. One night for like four hours Darla kept telling me that it didn't matter whether he got sober and then realized he loved me, or he realized he loved me and then got sober, she said either way my dad loved me and I ought to hang on to that with both hands." (26.111)
As memorable as his dad's last days were, Karl still struggles with his dad's actual motivations for kicking alcohol—specifically, whether he did it for himself or because he loved Karl and wanted to do it for him. As he processes the past with the Madmen and finally Gratz, he comes to realize that it doesn't really matter; the point is that he had a real dad for longer than most of his friends did.