Ferocious Francis and the Pakistani M.D.
‘Not my business to say one way or the other. Kid’s gonna do what he decides he needs to do for himself. He’s the one that’s feeling it. He’s the only one can decide.’
Context
What makes Ferocious Francis a real father is exactly what the M.P. never was: he refuses to run the son. Handed the chance to forbid the Demerol, to seize the decision, F.F. instead hands it back — the pain is Gately's, the choice is Gately's — and leaves the room, adding only "Might want to Ask For Some Help, deciding." Set against the M.P., who timed a toddler with a Navy chronometer and equated control with love, the Crocodile fathers by declining to control, trusting the son to carry his own weight. It's the theme's one model of paternity that works, and the book makes you feel its cost: the good father's love looks, from the crib-railing of a hospital bed, almost like being left alone.