One of the things I managed to pick up while reading, was that Booth was heavily motivated by an undeniable feeling of loneliness. Almost every moment he speaks with his brother, Lincoln, you can see it some way or another. He admires Lincoln, which is clearly shown whenever he’s trying to convince him to play cards again, so they can do it together (23). He wanted to be like him, better than him, or at the very least—be by his side. Booth hides this feeling from his brother, however, constantly telling lies about his exploits with Grace (the girl he likes) (44). At some point Booth attempts to even bring Lincoln down to his own level, so that perhaps they could be on equal ground, bringing up his ex-wife and the things he did with her (96-97).
