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Another ace character?


PurpleAce

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So, for college I had to read "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" by Anne Tyler. It's a realistic novel about a dysfunctional family. I've been analyzing one of the characters, Ezra Tull (the youngest of three brothers), and I think he might be asexual. Here are some exceprts from the book:

"Something about Ezra just hooked [women's] attention, it seemed. In his presence they took on a bright, sharp, arrested look, as if listening to a sound that others hadn't caught yet. Ezra didn't even notice this."

(...)

But Ezra just gazed into space from behind his clear gray eyes, from under his shock of soft, fair hair, and went on thinking his private thoughts. You could say this for Ezra: he seemed honestly unaware of the effect he had on women.

(...)

Cody [Ezra's brothers] half believed that Ezra had some lack - a lack that worked in his favour, that made him immune, that set him apart from ordinary men. There was something almost monkish about him. Women never really managed to penetrate his meditations, although he was unfailingly corteous to them, and considerate. He was likely to contemplate them in silence for an inappropriate length of time, and then ask something completely out of the blue. For instance: "How did you get those little gold circles through your ears?" It was ridiculous - a man reaches the age of twenty-seven without having heard of pierced earrings. However, it must not have seemed ridiculous to the woman he was addressing. She raised a finger to an earlobe in a startled, mesmerized way. She was spellbound. Was it Ezra's unexpectedness? The narrowness of his focus? (He'd passed up her low-cut dress, powdered cleavage, long silky legs.) Or his innocence, perhaps. He was a tourist on a female planet, was what he was saying. But he didn't realize he was saying it, and failed to understand the look she gave him. Or didn't care, if he did understand."

Have any of you read this novel? Any thoughts on this?

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I haven't read the novel but I've analysed fictional characters in literature as being asexual and this sounds very probable. It's an interesting suggestion anyway and I like it. The fact it's not complete dismissal of female attention (he's unfailingly courteous to them as you mentioned) makes me think it's less of a conscious ignorance of women and more of an innate lack of attraction. The novel seems to focus on the female appearance (dress, cleavage, legs) yet he asks about an earring. Personally when I meet/talk to people I notice less conventional things about them but maybe that's just me, ahahah.

Either way, I think your explanation is pretty solid and I'm now interested in the novel :)

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