Michael Foster

## Background

### Early life

Michael was born on May 9th, 1970 to working-class Jewish parents David Foster and Julienne Lestau in Pennsylvania. His father was an African-American Jewish man, while his mother had French and Welsh ancestry. Foster and Lestau were just out of college at the time of their son's birth; Julienne was a waitress, and David worked for an art store downtown. When Michael was ten, his parents split. As a result of Foster and Lestau's 'illegitimate' relationship, no formal proceedings occurred for divorce, though formal proceedings did occur for parental custody. Michael expressed a preference towards living with his father and only occasionally seeing his mother. David was given most custody, and Julienne partially.

Michael and his father moved to a flat after the split. Michael did public school during the first semester, and homeschooling in the second. He was often bullied for being Jewish at school; in 8th Grade, he was locked in a janitor's closet overnight and didn't get out until the following morning. His father insisted on his schools being switched.

Growing up, Michael had an obsession with J.D. Salinger, Aldous Huxley, Charles Dickens, and Virginia Woolf, inspiring him to begin writing. Michael was cut loose on a curfew and spent time in Chinatown which was five minutes from his father's apartment, meeting several children who taught him snippets of Mandarin and Vietnamese, as well as beginner Cantonese slang. Aged thirteen, Michael began helping out at a laundromat.

### Injury

In 1990, aged nineteen, Michael suffered a serious accident. During a bus crash, his spine was fractured in two places, and he experienced an intense concussion. While his spine was healing in the hospital, it formed an S-curve, and he required a spinal fusion. The surgery proved successful; however, his developed scoliosis was diagnosed as chronic.

## Personality

Michael is imaginative and pensive, and regularly delves into the lives of strangers, borderline stalking them. In the first half of the book, Michael is much more honest and emotionally organized, though in the second half he documents his growing tendency to lie and to go into a near 'fugue' state. There are multiple holes in Michael's narrative due to this.

In most chapters, most notably "Napalm", Michael shows complete disregard to any consequences caused by his self-destructive acts. He does not think before endangering himself, going as far as to overdose multiple times due to being careless for his own safety, and in "Napalm", he nearly drowns after taking a moderate dose of heroin; it was a suicide attempt. Once, he takes one of Salem's prescription medications without reading the bottle to see what it was. It was likely a sedative, as he blacked out almost immediately. Michael also has an extremely fluid self esteem. In a matter of hours, he goes from being relatively self-confident to a self-image rock-bottom, as well as shifting from mania to depressive episodes in only days.

Michael seems to be a much meeker man when he is sober. He tends to be more passionate, shy, and reverent.

## Appearance

Foster is a slim, dark-brown complected fellow with large-framed glasses. His shoulders, ribs, and hips are uneven as a result of scoliosis; his spine possesses an unnatural curvature, and has a surgical scar across it.

## Relationships

### Julienne Lestau

Michael has an extremely estranged relationship with his mother, Julienne, who divorced his father when Michael was ten years old.

### David Foster

Michael and his father, compared to him and his mother, have a very strong relationship. As a child, Michael watched his father prime canvases in a Pennsylvania art store. Michael had struggles during his latter childhood that his father accepted more so than his mother, and 'always tried to get it'. Michael shares a middle name with his father.

## Trivia

* In *"Napalm",* it's revealed that Michael has had his appendix removed, and has not had it since the age of 12.
* Michael's preferred cigarette brands are Camel and Marlboro.
* His favorite historical figures are Frida Kahlo, Alan L. Hart, Pablo Picasso, and Virginia Woolf. He mentions that he deeply relates to all four in multiple ways.
* Michael mentions that when he was younger, he never saw himself 'peaceful enough' to paint, and believed that painters generally required a Bob Ross-like temperament.
* Foster is a bisexual man; he has multiple affairs with women and men, one of which being with Lucien M. Devaughn.