The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Biff asks himself a lot of questions. He isn’t sure, for example, why everyone projects their desires onto John, who to Biff is clearly not one-dimensional. Four months after Alice’s death, Biff doesn’t miss her but is reminded of her when he finds a discarded perfume bottle that once belonged to her. The scent brings back a lifetime of memory as well as the reality of mortality.

Biff’s café-bar isn’t doing well, and he’s getting tired of the work, so he hires Harry to help him. Biff is also perturbed by his own constant desire to see Mick. He even passes by her house just to catch a glimpse of her. Biff describes this as “[t]he dark guilt in all men, unreckoned and without a name” (94).

Biff dreams about adopting children: He and Alice never had children because Biff didn’t have sex with her. Biff hopes Mick will come to the café and is disappointed when he doesn’t see her.

The money owed to Lucile for Baby’s medical expenses derails the Kelly family’s finances. They ration food among themselves to get by, trying hard to put their money into keeping up the boarding house and paying Lucile. Mick stops her informal