The House of Wolves

“Maybe I would [cry] later. Just not now. Not in front of the players. I was the coach. A tough guy. Another inherited trait.”

Although Jenny Wolf resents her father’s dirty business practices and his attempts to control her life, she is more like him than she is willing to admit. This passage shows that her toughness is a front she learned from her father in order to protect herself from feeling and expressing vulnerability.

“Gallo had been the sworn enemy of Joe Wolf for as long as I had been alive, from the time my father—and not Gallo—had been awarded the right to put the NFL franchise that became the Wolves in downtown San Francisco.”

Jenny sees her father’s business rival John Gallo as the primary threat to her control of the Wolf empire. In the first section of the novel, she has no idea that her brothers are working with Gallo, and she sees this as primarily a conflict between families. Jenny’s naivete at the beginning of the novel is an essential part of her character development.

“Danny Wolf was leaning against the wall next to the door, alone, eyes vacant, ashen-faced, phone in his hand. […] He turned and stared at me, almost as if he didn’t recognize me at first.”

In this passage, Danny and Jenny are in the same room for the first time in the novel. The fact that Jenny uses his full name to refer to him and he does not immediately recognize her highlights their estranged relationship. Jenny’s estrangement from her brothers influences her decision to take over her father’s empire.