Wan and gaunt, a cerulean-eyed teenage boy named Michael White shifted restlessly in his seat. His teacher, Mrs. Black, was bloviating about literature again. She was discussing The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassant. Michael wished he had a necklace so he could choke himself with it. Literature made him want to vomit. He could not understand the recondite and mystical prose that certainly did not bear any discernible relation to his life. He felt helpless, hopeless, disconnected from the rest of the class who eagerly vivified the words that buried him in loneliness. …
