Quarrel

she had left home after a spectacular quarrel with her parents. That was soon repaired—it had only been a declaration of independence—but she had kept her own job and her own apartment since then.
-copied from 4, here.

I am not really commenting on the novel, just reflecting on particular passages. I have been a son, of course, and then a parent. Based on that experience, I suggest that any permanent rift between a mother and father and their son or daughter is entirely the responsibility of the parents. (I avoid the word "fault," precisely because it played such a big part in my upbringing.) The parents have been children and adolescents and should remember what it was like and understand that their offspring will get through it. If my daughter had been brought up by people with the attitudes of the generation before mine, then she would have irretrievably quarreled with them long ago. According to a scripture that we recite in our meditation group, "...the Buddha had great wisdom at birth..." Why can all of us not have that? Because the universe was not designed for our convenience.