Bob Lang abandoning his family is the centerpiece of The Turning, and the family dynamic that springs from that act—a repeating pattern of guilt, anxiety, and silence that Vic first experiences with his mother and then his wife—drives much of the narrative tension of the Lang stories. Vic’s character is shaped by his father’s actions, first as a young man, when his father’s inability to confront the injustice at his work leads him to destructive alcoholism, and later as an adult, when his desire to correct his father’s mistakes makes him an overly protective husband, son, and lawyer. It is only after he confronts his father that Vic is able to begin healing.

The tension between father and child figures in most of the other family dynamics in the book. Agnes Larwood can’t bear who her once-alcoholic father has become and Brakey’s father has run off in “Cockleshell.” Max and Frank’s relationship in “Sand” and “Family” is built on the lack of love they experience from their father, leading them to focus their emotional energy on each other in destructive ways. Boner McPharlin’s father was an abusive, vicious man who cared little for his son.