Content Warning: The source material contains references to sexual assault, racism, and torture. Additionally, the source material uses outdated, offensive terms for LGBTQIA people, Jewish people, and other groups of people; these terms are replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material.

One of the two protagonists of the novel, Charlie Croker is 60 years old at the start of the narrative. Charlie is overwhelmingly defined by his physicality, with the novel often referring to his “massive back, his broad shoulders, his prodigious forearms” (6). A former college football star, Charlie is tall and weighs 235 pounds. Apart from his physique, he is also shown to be enormously proud of his quail plantation, Turpmtine, which to him symbolizes the old Southern order of manly men couched in nature and admired by domesticated women. Charlie is married to 28-year-old Serena, with whom he has a toddler daughter, Kingsley. He also has three older children with his ex-wife, Martha.

As the narrative begins, Charlie is heading toward the biggest crisis of his life: His real estate business is tanking, he owes the bank half a billion dollars, and his old football knee injury is acting up.