As soon as I'd hear his car start, I'd get up from my bowl of Ralston, run to her, put my hands on her eyes, which in a minute or two would make her stop crying. Rose imbues her son with artistic impulses that will lead to his writerly avocation. Filled with as much rue as wonder, she shows him how to feel. Yet if I picked up my mother's sadness, I received her pluck as well, for she came in layers of wistfulness and willingness. Withal, she was a robust woman who had been raised in a country family that was used to adversity and believed life's problems would give ground if you did your best.
Truth Comes in Blows also suffers from too conventional a narrative structure.
Events aren't weighted for individual or cumulative balance. The final scene, attempting to invoke lyrical insight through Delmore Schwartz, is particularly strained. Much is stock, including an awkward sexual rite of passage involving a girl named Honey. What ultimately happens to Rose isn't said. The text is littered with irrelevant schoolmate names.