In these opening scenes, Frank (Jalil Lespert), the pride of his blue-collar family, is a veritable Boy Scout: a little overconfident perhaps but also a model son and, once he lands a job in the factory's human resources division, a dutiful, enthusiastic employee bursting with new ideas.
Hornby, true to form, lets his character, Tucker Crowe, off relatively easy, granting him a string of failed marriages, estranged children and a heart attack, but also a devoted son.
Putin may be a child of the KGB but he is also a son of mother Russia and he has an uncanny knack for knowing what characteristics Russians want to see in their leaders.
These include not only Christian and Muslim combatants (Samir, a particularly deranged Christian sniper, is played by Mrs. Sabbag's brother, Tamim Chahal) but also a private chauffeur whose son has been kidnapped, a wealthy woman who arrives from France to rejoin her lover, a Christian girl who falls for a Muslim fighter and children who urge their elders to kidnap foreigners for ransom.
That means the lessons we can learn from how subcultures conducted direct communication back in the day is not only immensely useful, but also a way for the sons and daughters of the middle class to infuse our existence with meaning as an actuality and not just a consumption pattern.
She takes an up-tempo tour of African-influenced music across the Americas, singing not only Peruvian festejos and landós, but also a Colombian cumbia, a Cuban son, a Puerto Rican bomba, a Brazilian coco, a funk tune about New Orleans, a Mexican son jarocho.
He had the contacts and nerve to take along not only Elizabet and her son, but also a younger brother, his father, who was over 70, and his mother, who was recovering from a heart attack.
Chaudhary is not just a good son, but also a great husband and father too.
They are also a son and a mother.
