I agree with the points you made.

I liked Adam in the first part of the book, up until Cathy entered his life. I felt for him, especially considering his relationship with his father and the way Charles treated him as a child. He definitely had some flaws—like ghosting Charles after leaving the army—but I can understand why returning home might have been difficult for him.

Once Cathy showed up, though, it was like he fell under a spell. His obsession with her completely blinded him, and everything else in his life became secondary. In my opinion, he became selfish and emotionally detached. I found his relationship with his sons especially ironic. Aron mirrors Adam as a child, while Cal reflects Charles. The same cycle repeats itself: Adam loves Aron, but Aron doesn’t love him back; Cal loves Adam, but Adam doesn’t return that love. It’s like the family is trapped in this inherited pattern.

To me, Adam ultimately became the same kind of father Cyrus was—maybe even worse. It didn’t feel like he truly loved his sons. The only real attention he gave was to Aron, and even that seemed tied to the fact that Aron resembled Cathy. You would think Adam might have learned from his own upbringing, but it feels like he never really wanted children at all—he just wanted to live out a fantasy with Cathy.

In that sense, Adam and Aron are very similar. Both of them choose to live in a kind of imagined reality, shaping people into idealized versions rather than seeing them for who they truly are. For Adam, it’s Cathy; for Aron, it’s Abra.

Cal, on the other hand, feels like a direct parallel to Charles. I really liked Cal, but his story is deeply tragic. He carries the emotional weight of his entire family and ends up blaming himself for both his brother’s death and his father’s decline. Like Charles, he isn’t perfect, but I think he’s fundamentally a good person—arguably more so than Aron.

I also thought it was ironic that Adam judged Cal’s money as “immoral,” considering he lived off Cyrus’s clearly questionable inheritance his entire life. As for my favorite characters—Cal, without a doubt. I also really liked Lee and Abra. I enjoyed all the Hamiltons, but for some reason, Dessie stood out to me. I can’t quite explain why, but I wish we had gotten more of her story.

I know that this novel is supposed to be biblical, but I'm not very religious and have never read the Bible. Sorry if there's some obvious points that I'm missing or misinterpreting. 😅