“You blew it”
The Book of Mirrors“You blew it” is the recurring expression Tony uses to criticize his father for the divorce. Its force comes from the narrator’s agreement: he acknowledges that Tony is right, even as he believes he has already paid dearly for his past mistake.
The Expression and Its Use
The narrator says Tony always used the expression ‘You blew it’. Repeated rather than offered as a one-time accusation, it makes the divorce an enduring point of conflict between father and son. The phrase is brief and blunt, reducing the narrator’s responsibility to a judgment Tony continues to voice.
Family Context and Significance
At the time of the conversation, Tony is about to turn thirty-eight. He married three years earlier, and his daughter Erin is one and a half; the narrator has seen his granddaughter only once, immediately after her birth. Against this account of distance, the narrator admits that he did indeed “blow it,” but adds that he has lived alone for nearly thirty years and thinks people should sometimes forgive one another. The expression therefore carries two positions at once: Tony’s continuing criticism and the narrator’s acceptance of blame, tempered by his sense that the consequences have already been severe.
