She is proud of both her children and finds it difficult to accept that one should be doing better than the other. She thinks, or pretends to think, that it is Andrew’s fault he is not as successful as his sister, and that if only he tried harder, he would catch up with her. Debbie sees it as her duty to make him try harder, just as she did when he was at school. Andrew never did well at school—to others Debbie asserted it was because he was too brilliant, but at home she gave him no peace. From early morning, even before she had had her coffee and when she is never at her best, she nagged him about his poor performance. This had the effect of making him stop going to school altogether, and for a period, when he was about fifteen or sixteen, no one knew where Andrew was, or with whom. It was also the period during which his tastes were formed, among the group of older men who took him along to their studios and favorite downtown bars and uptown gallery openings. In this milieu Andrew grew up quickly—fortunately with a basis of seriousness that made him recognize his need for education.
