They must have emotions and needs and desires both sated and unfulfilled, and there must be some sources of human drama in a preppie life. Theoretically, I am sure that is true. Unfortunately it cannot be demonstrate by Sledge's book. Much as Stowers, in Sins of the Son, comes across as detached and unfeeling, Sledge in Mother and Son comes across as vapid. Literature is a linear form.
Reality is irreducibly nonlinear.
Moreover, reality is so rich that, even in several volumes, no writer can hope to capture the whole of the reality of even a single moment. But this only means that at some point the writer must accept the responsibility for his work. The memorialist, in particular, cannot help but be selective. As no one can write the whole truth, the memorialist must attempt to convey the truth while telling less than the whole of it, and must accept the responsibility for doing so. It seems difficult for some authors to understand that who they know as people, readers will encounter as characters.