Reuven Malter is the first-person narrator, so the story is in his voice and reflects what he sees, hears, and feels. Typically, when a character narrates a story, he’s the protagonist—the main character that the reader cheers on. Reuven is a main character, and the reader has very little reason not to like him, but Danny's presence arguably overshadows Reuven, turning Reuven into Danny’s sidekick. As Malter tells his son, “You are a brilliant student. I tell you that now very proudly. But [Danny] is a phenomenon. Once in a generation is a mind like that born” (151). Reuven’s mind is far from average, but Danny’s brain is mind-blowing, and Reuven often plays second fiddle to Danny’s intellect.

While Reuven has problems with his dad—he worries Malter works himself to death—his relationship with his father is far less rocky than Danny’s relationship with his dad, and their drama inevitably becomes the primary topic of conversation for Reuven and his dad. After Reuven visits Danny’s house for the first time and witnesses the public Talmud quizzing, he goes home and talks to his dad about it. When Reb Saunders forbids his son from staying friends with Reuven due to