65 pages • 2 hours read
Alistair MacLeodNo Great Mischief
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
As they grow older, Alex’s brothers begin to wander further from their home, searching for anything to satisfy their interests. When they get into trouble, the extended clann Chalum Ruaidh steps in to help them. The stories filter back to Alex and his grandparents via intermediaries and are often third- or fourth-hand. Occasionally, Alex will see them. They will wind down the window of their car and ask him questions. They also leave cuts of meat from hunted deer and moonshine beside the back door of their grandparents’ home.
With his grandfather and Grandpa, Alex remembers learning about Scottish history and tax returns. His grandfather recounts the aftermath of the battle of Killiecrankie, picturing the wounded and the traumatized. His Grandpa prefers to remember the warriors positively, as victorious men returning joyously to their homes. As Grandpa celebrates his tax refund with a beer, he insists that Alex’s father is a “good man.”
Chapter 14 Summary
Alex recalls a trip to his sister’s house in Calgary, which happened two years ago. She married a petroleum engineer named Pankovich and they are well-off. One year, she and her husband rented a car and drove around Scotland, visiting the places clann Chalum Ruaidh had described in their stories. Very little of the history is left. Together with Alex, she reminisces about her parents’ dog and other family members. They discuss the difficult nature of history, including one example of a historian who embellished Scottish history. They drink whisky together until her children come home.
Chapter 15 Summary
Alex sees the protestors in Toronto again. It reminds him of a summer day when he was at his brothers’ house and saw whales gathering in the sea. Everyone hurries to watch them, shouting and applauding the whales from the shore.
Later, Alex walks along the shore and discovers a dead whale washed up on the land. Already, the crows have begun to pick it apart. In the night, a storm rages, and they venture out to protect the boat. By the morning, they think the storm has washed away the whale’s body, but they find it hundreds of yards inland. It stays there for a year until only the bones remain.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
Most characters in the book exhibit an appreciation of history. While only a few characters actively study the subject (Alex’s grandfather, for instance), many others are happy to reminisce about their family’s role in Scottish and Canadian history. The figures, the battles, and the events are frequently motifs that punctuate the conversation. This occurs in the past and the present; from sitting around Alex’s grandparents’ kitchen table to sitting with Catherine in her modern house, every member of the family has opinions on and an interest in the family history.
The idea of the extended family enjoying a privileged place in history will repeatedly appear. However, the truth of the historical events rarely seems to matter. When Alex’s grandfather speaks about the research he has done into the actual events, Grandpa pushes these awkward realities aside and prefers to dwell on the romantic, idealized version of events that he has come to know. Whether the subject is ancient Scottish history, a bar brawl, or a family tragedy, the comfortable truth is easier for some to accept, while others prefer the cold, harsh realities.
