the drinking that runs in the family
Mrs. Avril Incandenza isn’t crazy about the idea of Hal drinking, mostly because of the way his father had drunk, when alive, and reportedly his father’s own father before him, in AZ and CA
Context
Three generations of the family disease named in a subordinate clause, long before the novel shows anyone drink: the grandfather in AZ and CA, the father who is now dead, and the son the mother works so hard not to visibly dread. The inheritance is stated as fact and then buried under her performance of trust, which is its own tell.