Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses the source text’s depictions of murder and rape.

The pursuit of Rothstein’s notebooks—which become the object of obsession for both Morris and Pete throughout the novel—illustrate The Dangers of Obsession. Morris embodies obsession carried to its furthest point, prioritized over everything else, including the self. Pete, on the other hand, ultimately illustrates the importance of letting go of the obsession in favor of more important, universal values such as family.

Morris’s obsession with Rothstein and his writing have already taken over his life by the beginning of the novel, as he decides to rob Rothstein in order to read the rest of his writing and to punish Rothstein for writing Jimmy Gold differently than Morris would have. Throughout the novel, after 35 years in prison, Morris’s obsession with Jimmy Gold and Rothstein’s writing, and by extension the notebooks, grows. When he discovers the notebooks are missing, he loses all sense of proportionality, even willing to murder children and sacrifice his freedom to secure the notebooks. His journey reveals the danger that comes with obsessing over something to the point that it takes over your life, as Morris is unwilling to step away even to preserve his own life: “He goes to his knees in front of the notebooks like a religious zealot in front of a blazing altar,” catching fire but “continu[ing] to root his way into the bonfire, trying to get at any unburned notebooks” (405-06).