Tadhg or Tiger, the Dim, the Sulking Spastic, fifth of six kids, lends a thumbnail to the Lafferty family, sampling their charms and defects. Brow furrowed and right hand by habit sometimes hitched and fisted backwards, he staffs and manages two houses for vulnerable adults. Tiger is preceded by four others, 1) Tobias the Stolid, a power hitter on any baseball team, insurance adjuster and prudent executor; 2) tall and fine looking Bobby, who produced a slew of cartoon-fun styrofoam sculptures about serial killers, selling one to the MOMA in 1982, but none since; he is a weathervane of family lore who could not tell a straight or brief story; 3) Bridget or Bríd the maternal, a lesbian and loud optimist, voice actor, former nun who left the convent at 39, long-ago widow to Flint, who sold speedboats; 4) Freddy the successful jingle-smith whose songs grace commercials for pharmaceuticals, in-flight shopping, and the NBA; Tiger is followed by baby sister 6) Cecelia, name shortened to Cece, rhymes with cease, the internist at 30 after eight years of post-graduate study; while she is close to her sister Bríd, she listens to all when she’s not doctoring or on-call, especially Tiger, who tells her more than anyone, and whom she patiently soothes, or at least grounds his popping histrionics.
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