Meet the Cast
Dominick Birdsey
A Birdsey in the HandDominick Birdsey is our cranky-as-the-day-is-long narrator of I Know This Much is True. Here is what we know is true about Dominick: He's angry. Here's a little round-up of why...
Thomas Birdsey
Birdseys of a FeatherIt usually takes an extreme event for a dysfunctional family to repair itself. Maybe there's a huge fight at Thanksgiving, or people reconciling at the funeral of a grandparent...
Ray Birdsey
The Thorn Birdseys Ray Birdsey is a veteran of WWII and Korea, who marries Concettina Tempesta, a woman with two illegitimate children from an unknown man. People thought Ray was a saint for marryi...
Domenico Onofrio Tempesta
Jesus Christ Superstar? More Like Domenico Onofrio SuperstarDominick's grandfather and namesake acts like he's the second coming of Christ. His religious fervor makes him seem just as crazy as Thom...
Prosperine and Ignazia
Live Long and ProsperineIgnazia is Dominick's grandmother. When Domenico first sees her, she is wearing a "woolen coat as red as blood" (37.45), the red coat being traditional literary shorthand fo...
Concettina "Ma" Birdsey
Mama BirdseyMa is dead by the beginning of the novel, having succumbed to breast cancer, but we do learn a bit about her over the course of the book. She was raised by a single father, and ended up...
Ralph Drinkwater
New MoonRalph Drinkwater crosses paths with Dominick Birdsey often. They went to school together, worked together during a summer break from college, and Ralph is the janitor at Hatch, the institut...
Dessa Constantine
First Wives ClubDessa is Dominick's first wife, and he never gets over her. After they split, he obsesses over the things he did wrong during their relationship, like that time he had a vasectomy a...
Joy
MisnomerDominick's current girlfriend, Joy, is probably the most joyless character in the novel, but she sure has a positive outlook on life. Joy and Dominick have little in common. They met at the...
Leo Blood and Angie Constantine
Blood is Thicker than WaterLeo is Dominick's best friend. Well, Leo might be Dominick's only friend, and these two get along so well because they're both total pieces of work. Angie, Dessa's sister...
Lisa Sheffer and Dr. Patel
The Social NetworkLisa Sheffer is the social worker at the Hatch institute who promises to take care of Thomas and help Dominick get him transferred somewhere else. This doesn't work out the way th...
Minor Characters
There are a few other characters to mention, just for completion's sake. First is Theresa Fenneck, the librarian who witnesses Thomas chop off his own hand, and is concerned about being somehow sue...