There Will Be No Miracles Here

Rod Gerald is Casey Gerald’s father. Rod was a star football player in high school who was recruited to Ohio State, where he suffered severe injuries and was unable to continue a football career. He was the most valuable player in the 1975 Orange Bowl, for example. The damage of losing the promising prospect of a football career looms over Rod Gerald’s life and frames much of the book.

Rod Gerald marries Debra West in 1982, which is the year that Natashia Gerald is born. Once he moves his family back to Dallas, Rod Gerald develops a drug problem (although its origins were related to his football injuries) that seems partially responsible for his increasing disengagement from his family and repeated failures to perform basic parenting tasks.

Casey Gerald’s mother apparently suffers from bipolar disorder, although that diagnosis is not entirely confirmed in the book. When Gerald is very young, his memories of his mother are positive, and he views her eccentricities as fun because she is not like most grown-ups. Gerald becomes more aware of her problems as he grows until, in 1999 or 2000, she simply disappears for years without any indication of where she went or whether she would come back. In fact, she called to say she would be home soon, but she never showed up. Years later, as Gerald is about to graduate high school, she returns. Her mental health problems are far more apparent to Gerald at that time, and he discusses interacting with the mental health institutions that she is sometimes confined to.

Gerald’s older sister by five years, Natashia (or Tashia) steps in to care for Gerald after failing to complete a college education. Aside from the question of her own education and opportunities, Tashia is an unmitigated heroine for Casey. He recounts positive memories of Tashia and her understanding care for him throughout his childhood, as well as fun they had. While Gerald is in high school, Tashia arranges for a Section 8 apartment, and the two siblings are able to receive and cash their mother’s disability checks so they have something to live on. It is a highly positive time for Gerald. Later, however, men break into Tashia’s apartment when Gerald is visiting, seeking money that Tashia’s boyfriend has hidden there, which suggests the presence of struggles not recounted in the book. Tashia has one child who is mentioned but not described in the book.

Gerald’s maternal grandmother is a major figure in his childhood. She is a firm and responsible woman who ensures that Gerald and Tashia are cared for regardless of their parents’ problems. Gerald’s relationship with his Granny is particularly poignant. Despite often acting in conflict with her, he repeatedly reflects on her strength and crucial role in sustaining him and the community, and his deep respect for and gratitude toward Granny is explicit in the book. At one point, Gerald writes something of a broad-based appreciation for such grandmothers. Although the motif fades by the latter part of the book, the saintliness of grandmothers recurs throughout the earlier chapters.

Rod Gerald’s father Cornelius is a popular preacher in the area of Dallas where they live. According to Gerald, Rod is hyper-obedient to Cornelius. For a time, Rod serves as a preacher like his father. Cornelius’s eventual death, which Gerald witnesses, is very painful for Rod and may be a partial precursor to Rod’s decline.

Clarice provides some measure of stability for Gerald when needed, but they do not develop a deep relationship like the one Gerald shares with Granny. She is overly conformist and traditional, and not sympathetic.

Elijah is an important figure in the book, partly because his suicide forces Gerald to reflect on his earlier choices, which he comes to see tinged with regret. Elijah and his fate are first introduced in Gerald’s dream. Elijah was a Yale student in a class below Gerald’s who looked to Gerald as a big brother figure. With entirely good intentions, Gerald pushed Elijah, as he did himself, to succeed at all costs, often forgoing the niceties of friendship and the personal support that can flourish with it. It is clear that Gerald views Elijah’s death as relevant to understanding his own identity once he comes to feel that he has “died” to fit the mold of the American dream and privileged elites at Yale.

Gerald meets his Yale classmate Daniel in their first year at the school. Daniel is also Black. Gerald describes him as a lot like himself, “except his parents are lawyers, and his sister went to Yale” (171). Daniel is from Gary, Indiana, and has a room across from Gerald at the outset of their Yale experience. Daniel is among the charter members of the Black Men’s Union and remains friends with Gerald throughout the book.

Brenda Cox is a teacher in the neighborhood where Gerald grew up. She represents something constant and pragmatic in the book. Following Gerald’s earlier experiences with her as a child, Brenda Cox reappears late in the book when Gerald is preparing to run for Congress. It is Brenda Cox he calls when he wants to test his talking points for revealing his homosexuality. Cox already knew he was gay and is understanding. Nonetheless, their conversation precipitates Gerald’s questioning of the run when he talks with a consultant afterward.

The high school football coaches at South Oak Cliffs are not well distinguished in the book but do play an important formative role in Gerald’s life. Coaches Price, Taylor, and Walker produce many top-notch football players who secure scholarships to big schools and even go on to play in the NFL. They drive their students hard, including Gerald. When playing for Yale becomes a possibility, it is presented to Gerald by his high school coaches, who encourage him to take the opportunity.