Death and Grief

This thematic thread traces the book's meditation on death as a family inheritance, a spectacle and a barely distinguishable state of life.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Suicide-by-Shotgun Tradition

The Suicide-by-Shotgun Tradition Context The narrator tells the story of her neighbour Frank, who fired a shotgun into his own arse last Christmas. It was his turn, following his grandfather and father. Turn She notes that suicide by shotgun is a family tradition, a kind of inheritance. The countryside is full of accidental falls and clichés of self-harm. Aftermath Death is introduced as a mundane local custom. The book begins with a corpse and a shrug.

The Rifle on the Night Table

The Rifle on the Night Table Context Inside the father-in-law's bedroom there is a rifle and, on the night table, cartridges. He says he will fire at anyone who comes in, straight at the feet. Turn The father-in-law, an average man who thinks he is exceptional, goes over supermarket receipts with a calculator while armed under his pillow. The narrator wonders if this is a day lived. Aftermath Death is kept on standby in the ordinary furniture of the house. The rifle is part of the domestic still life.

The Funeral and the Wake

The Funeral and the Wake Context The father-in-law's washed corpse is locked in a pinewood coffin with his secrets, his navy exploits and his jokes. The guests call him an excellent father and husband, better than excellent. Turn The procession moves to the inn where the dead man drank his lunchtime beers. The widow reveals that he used to sit for hours in the semidarkness facing the lit-up tree. Aftermath In the end, no one really has anything to say about him. The funeral shows how death flattens a life into platitudes.

The Death of a Child Is Science Fiction

The Death of a Child Is Science Fiction Context The narrator watches the baby sleep and repeatedly checks that he is still breathing. She thinks the death of a child is science fiction, something that happens to other species. Turn She feels the urge to throw herself around, sees the doorknob turn on its own, and imagines leaving the buggy on a downhill slope. The fear of child death becomes a form of haunting. Aftermath The thought of the child's death is both unbearable and strangely seductive. Death is no longer science fiction but the closest companion of her sleepless nights.

The Living and the Dead

The Living and the Dead Context The narrator watches the crowd gather for the gay teenager's suicide. She says the time will come when the living and the dead will be indistinguishable. Turn A lorry driver would struggle to tell a man sleeping by the roadside from a man who has just been run over. Death is a subtle difference of being. Aftermath The thought dissolves the boundary between life and death. The bridge suicide is not a catastrophe but a glimpse of the general rule.

early in the story, in the narrator's opening monologue

during the Christmas before the baby's birth

after the father-in-law's death

a night when the narrator is alone with the baby

during the Sunday outing at the suspension bridge