David Boring - Characters

Characters

• David Boring: David, who gives his birthdate as May 6, 1978, is both the novel's protagonist and narrator. He is very quiet, thoughtful, passive, and is noticeably skinny. At the beginning of the novel he works as a security guard, although he has virtually no capacity for violence. David is an expert pick-up artist, but derives little satisfaction from his conquests and does not boast of them. He is in search of a woman who meets his exacting ideal of female physical beauty. He also aspires to be a filmmaker, although at the book's end he seems to have given up this goal. His only other motivation, it seems, is to learn more about his absent, deceased father, whom he never knew and of whom his mother refuses to talk at length. David tries to learn as much as he can from fragmented pages of a superhero comic his father made, called The Yellow Streak.

• Dot: Dot is David's best friend. She has known him since high school, when they did short film projects together. Dot is a lesbian, and enjoys the fact that she can peacefully coexist and cohabit with David without any sexual tension. Unfortunately, Dot has a tendency to get involved with women who do not self-identify as lesbian and who are already involved with a man.

• Wanda Kraml: A woman with whom David falls in love. Although she appears modest, conservative, and old-fashioned, David later discovers that she has a habit of getting involved with men who become obsessed with her, later abandoning them. She later joins a bizarre cult, and at the novel's end, appears to have become involved with Karkes again.

• Ferdinand B. Karkes: A college professor who shares David's obsessive streak, and is similarly obsessed with Wanda. Unlike David, Karkes never gets over his fixation on Wanda, and his obsession has cost him his marriage, his finances, and the respect of his colleagues.

• Whitey Whitman: David's old school friend, whom David describes as "a cynical hayseed with pretensions of urbanity." Whitey gives David a lucky penny, and is subsequently murdered in the street after leaving a woman's apartment.

• Mrs. Boring: David's mother, whom he dislikes. David describes her as "horrible" and she appears to have no interest in relationships with other people. She is angry that David wants to know more about his father, whom she absolutely despises.

• Iris: Manfred's wife and Mrs. Capon's daughter. She gets involved with Dot, but is disgusted with her own homosexual behavior. She later leaves Dot for Agent Roy Smith.

• Manfred Roland, Jr.: Iris' abusive husband. He does not get along with her or her family, and later tries to kill Dot. It is strongly hinted that he killed Mrs. Capon.

• Agent Roy Smith: An unscrupulous government agent who falls for Iris, and tries to frame David and Dot for Whitey's murder in order to have her for himself. It is implied that he also has Manfred arrested for the murder of Mrs. Capon after Dot and Iris identify him as her killer.