Well, I guess I'll get it started. Here's my take on question 1:

I don’t see any of Grandpap in Eric. Eric is, from the moment we are introduced to him, his own man. A man in flux: tentative and disillusioned with his station in life, granted----but clearly emergent as a sentient and tender-hearted man.

Compare/contrast the two men? Sure, why not? Eric’s heart is open to life and sensitive. Grandpap’s heart is jaded and hardened from a lifetime of toeing a hard line of mountain masculinity, secret-keeping and conformity.

I get the sense that it’s all over but the burying for Grandpap, but Eric is showing a reverence for life that will burst into full bloom later in the book, when a far more personal crucible must be navigated in his own life.

Josh is non-descript in my perception: a mere mirror of his father. He seems so one-dimensional that his only purpose is for incidental dramatic effect.