Despite Quinn's flaws, do you like him? If not, did you understand why he behaves the way he does?

The author has said, "If a writer can't make you like a character, she must at least make you understand him." Despite Quinn's flaws, do you like him? If not, did you understand why he behaves the way he does?

My feelings toward Quinn grew over the course of the book. At first I didn't like him all that much. I hated the way he reacted toward his son, not understanding his differences, trying to make him into something he wasn't, and simply not being there for him as he grew up. But he grew on me, as he began to understand his son through his relationship with Ona and by the end of the book I liked him a lot.

I never disliked Quinn, I rather felt sorry for him. He lost out on so much in life because of personality flaws that probably arose in his pretty isolated childhood after his mother died. All he had in life really was his music and he truly never learned to really show love. I grew to care for Quinn even more as the book moved on. His try at redemption by continuing to pay Belle was so sad. I have read all of Monica Wood's books which is unique for a West Coast woman who hadn't been introduced to this author in our local book stores. My husband and I visited a New Hampshire independent book store and asked the owner to introduce us to a few of his favorite New England authors. He sold us Any Bitter Thing and I read it twice. I introduced it to both of our book clubs and at our last meeting realized most of us have picked up Ms. Wood's other books and chose The One-in-a-Million Boy for this month's book.

I liked Quinn. I felt sorry for him. He lost his mother when he was young. He did not have a good relationship with his father and did not have a close relationship with his brother. He loved making music and his mother loved that about him. He probably never should have married Belle and certainly not twice. That makes me believe he was trying to do right but just could not quite succeed. He wanted to be a musician. I liked him from the beginning.

I did not dislike Quinn; I felt sorry for him and hoped that he would have an epiphany before he self-destructed.
Thank goodness something came along to help him along the road to realization and maturation. Early on, he was consumed with his music and eventual career as a musician. He devoted little time to being a husband and a father. He lived in his own world--a world of music and gigs.

I liked Quinn and have met a few men before who are a lot like him. Kind hearted, but not sure of themselves in situations they are uncomfortable with.

I liked Quinn. I liked that he felt he responsibility to fulfill his son's incomplete task. He was a lost soul and I think many people can relate to that. I sometimes wanted to shake him and say "this is what I want". Like the time he wanted to keep playing with the religious band. But he'd been rejected twice by Belle - maybe it was hard to say I want this, too much risk in being told no. He felt like a comfortable old flannel shirt.

I thought he was kind of a jerk at first, but he became my third favorite character (behind Ona and the boy). He stepped up and did the right things both with Ona and Belle and you kind of had to love him for that.

There was not a time when I didn't like him. I thought it was sad that he wasn't around more for his son. I think he was driven to become a successful musician and unfortunately that took precedence over the time he spent with his family. Even when he did spend time with the boy, he had trouble relating to him. I think people generally do the best they can. He felt guilty about his failures as a father and husband and tried to make ammends by completing the boys scouting job with Ona and giving Belle money. He could have easily went on with his life, but he tried in the only way he could to make things right in his mind. Ona herself had flaws as a parent. Through his friendship with Ona he grew as a person. He ended up taking a different kind of job in the music industry. He was there for Ona even when he didn't have to be. They needed each other. Like everyone else, Quinn also had good qualities. He was a great musician. He worked hard & was dependable for gigs offered to him. Ona seemed to think he did a good enough job with the tasks she assigned him. He truly wanted Belle to be happy even if that meant moving on with someone else. His son would have been happy to see how his dad turned out. I think he became more withdrawn when his mother died. His music became his life.

I really do like Quinn. He had very little parenting from his own Dad and never seemed to grieve adequately for his Mother. I think he tried to bond with the boy but felt he could not. He expressed to Belle and her sister that he felt something was "not right" with his son. He wanted someone to fix it but Belle was happy to have her little boy just as he was and looked for the good things to celebrate. I don't think Quinn came close to understanding that his son was trying to communicate with him until Belle gave him the "gift" of the detailed ordered articles of his gigs, collected lovingly by this boy of lists and numbers. I think he probably changed the most in the story with the help of all the other characters, especially Ona and his own son, but in that case after his son's death.

I always liked Quinn and could understand him. He didn't fit into a family man mold, not everyone can. He was not a bad person, and tried his best to be the man Belle wanted him to be. His relationship with each character in the book reveals what a kind man he is. Yes, he wasn't good at being a father to the boy, but he didn't know how to be a father to this boy.

Yes, I did like him. He tried in his own way to love his wife and son, but music was his driving passion and he was so intent on being a great musician that he didn't take the time to be a better husband and father. Which of course was selfish of him and he regretted later. Plus, as a parent myself, just because you have a child doesn't necessarily mean you will have common interests - you may not even understand your own child! But Quinn should definitely have tried harder to love him anyway. And be there for him and his wife.

I liked Quinn. I liked the fact that he wanted to fulfill his son's commitment and I liked how he became attached and wanted to take care of Ona after he got to know her. I felt bad that he learned to love and admire his son after it was too late. He was a complex person who had been lonely and possibly odd-man out for much of his life but I think he learned to let go of his feelings a little bit by the time the story ended.

Quinn was a rather complex character. True, he had a lot of flaws and a rough life but in the end he began to come to terms with himself.

I liked Quinn very much, flaws and all. We are not perfect and if one person can change you for the better than we know that we are always growing. You can see the growth as the story progresses.

I think Quinn is sort of the "ordinary person" in this book. Like Quinn, a lot of us go through life just going through life - we don't really appreciate people who aren't like us just like Quinn couldn't appreciate the boy, Belle, or (at first) Ona. I sympathasized with him even if I didn't really like him. But he becomes able to appreciate and "see" Ona and becomes able to appreciate what he missed with the boy and ultimately, his own life. So I came to like him.