Playworld

Naomi Shah is one of the novel’s primary characters. She is married to Sam Shah, with whom she has two daughters. She is also one of the Hurts’ family friends; she meets and starts spending time with Griffin as a result of her friendships with Shel and Lily.

When Naomi is 36 years old, she falls in love with Griffin and begins to exploit him. At first, Naomi’s interest in Griffin is intriguing to him: “It [is] the heat of Naomi’s attention that [gets him] so excited” (5). Naomi interacts with Griffin in a way he’s unaccustomed to. She not only shows interest in his acting career but also quickly becomes one of the only people who Griffin feels comfortable confiding in. In the fall of 1980, Griffin begins to run into her outside Julliard. Soon, he starts to join her there, and the two begin taking regular drives together. On these drives, Griffin opens up about his struggles at home, at school, and on set. Naomi listens attentively and reassures and comforts him. Therefore, Griffin initially sees Naomi as his confidante and friend. Over time, their dynamic becomes increasingly distorted through Naomi’s sexual abuse. 

Naomi exploits Griffin’s innocence and youth; she knows that he is vulnerable and takes advantage of his vulnerability because she’s lonely. Griffin genuinely likes Naomi, but her attachment to him often makes him uncomfortable. Even when they start a physical relationship, Griffin sometimes pushes Naomi away, avoids her in public, or intentionally tries to make her feel guilty for neglecting her husband and children to spend time with him.

Noami and Griffin’s relationship intensifies when Griffin’s mother arranges for him to spend the summer with the Shah family. Instead of respecting Griffin and giving him the space he’s due, Naomi uses their physical proximity to immediately reignite their relationship. They see one another in secret throughout the summer months. For Griffin, Naomi is at times a distraction and a balm (he’s confused about Amanda, frustrated with Oren, and upset by his parents’ separation). At the same time, their relationship causes him to experience guilt, shame, and fear.

Griffin frames much of his account around his relationship with Naomi because it feels less daunting to confront than his other traumatic experiences. He is also better able to make sense of and extricate himself from this entanglement than he is others (particularly those with his parents and coach). Naomi is thus a pseudo antagonist: She wears the metaphoric clothes of an archetypal guide and offers Griffin comfort but is using him.

Shel Hurt is another of the novel’s primary characters. He is Lily Hurt’s husband and Griffin and Oren Hurt’s father. Shel is an actor and a singer and has shaped his life around the theater. While he’s had success doing commercials and plays, Shel has never gotten to star in a movie as he’s always dreamed. His vocational disappointments inspire him to push Griffin into the acting world. He wants Griffin to succeed where he couldn’t. Shel is also burdened by financial stressors and uses Griffin’s success to stay afloat. Lily doesn’t categorically approve of this arrangement, but she puts her relationship with Shel before her relationship with Griffin and does nothing to stop Griffin from working and contributing to the family finances.

Shel is one of the primary adult influences and authority figures in Griffin’s life. While Griffin loves his father, he often struggles to communicate openly with him. In particular, he’s afraid to tell Shel that he doesn’t want to be an actor. He does make several attempts to communicate with Shel and is always surprised when his father listens to him. Shel offers Griffin a semblance of familial stability, but he’s often too distracted by his own concerns to fully invest in his son’s coming of age. In particular, his involvement with Abe Fountain’s play and his affair with his co-star Katie distract him from his home life and make it harder for Griffin to reach him.

Oren Hurt is another of the novel’s secondary characters. He is Griffin’s younger brother, and his parents are Shel and Lily Hurt. While Oren is a more marginal character in Griffin’s account, he has a vibrant personality. He and Griffin are particularly close when they’re young, and Griffin admires Oren’s spunk and cleverness. He is, for example, the one who incites their snooping adventures at their parents’ friends’ houses, rides the horse in the snow, tries to save the cat from the fire, and steals Sam Shah’s driving gloves.

Griffin often worries about his relationship with Oren when he feels distance forming between them. At times, he fears that Oren feels abandoned by him, but he also witnesses Oren taking control of his life and spending more time away from their home. Even when the brothers have difficult patches in their relationship, Oren is a fixture in Griffin’s life, and Griffin holds no resentment toward him. At the same time, the rifts that do form in their relationship challenge Griffin emotionally, compelling him to question who he is, what his values are, and who he wants to be close to. This is particularly true because Oren has always supported and defended Griffin (he stands up for him to their parents and offers Griffin advice when he’s going through acting or wrestling conflicts). When he and Oren aren’t as close, Griffin feels unmoored and works to repair their dynamic.

Amanda West is one of the novel’s secondary characters and Griffin’s first real love interest. Griffin and Amanda meet when he first starts working with director Alan Hornbeam on Take Two. He spots Amanda getting out of school across the street from the studio, and they strike up a conversation and begin riding the bus home together. To Griffin, Amanda is an anomaly because she’s attractive and sweet, introspective and observant. Throughout the majority of Part 2, he tries desperately to win her affection. Amanda indeed shows interest in Griffin, but she’s also dating a boy named Rob, who she prioritizes over her friendship with Griffin. Griffin doesn’t give up on Amanda even when she treats him poorly, ignores him, or uses him. However, by the novel’s end, he ends their friendship because it is too painful for him. Amanda offers Griffin a foray into the excitement and pain of love while teaching him how to prioritize his needs in intimate relationships.