No Great Mischief

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999

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Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary

The next day, Alex and his sister eat breakfast, still unaware of what has happened. Members of clann Chalum Ruaidh come from far and wide for Colin’s wake. The death of Alex’s parents is attributed to an act of God; his paternal grandfather offers to look after the lighthouse until a replacement is found. With his violin, he plays laments that carry across the water to the town.

The dog returns to the shore again and again, looking for her missing owners. When the new lightkeeper arrives, she becomes defensive and snarls. The new man shoots her dead and throws the body into the sea. The dog was a descendant of Calum Ruadh’s own.

Months later, Alex’s grandfather finds his daughter’s purse on the shore. There is not much of interest inside. It is the only item ever found. Many years later, the purse is given to Alex’s sister before her wedding. Although Alex does not remember the death of his parents that well, the story has passed down through his family, just like all his other stories.

Chapter 8 Summary

Alex remembers an encounter with an American at an orthodontists’ conference; the man advised that he move to Texas to make money, but Alex politely declined. Alex mulls over which alcohol to buy for Calum and thinks about the slogans he sees on t-shirts and picket signs.

Chapter 9 Summary

Following their parents’ deaths, Alex’s older brothers move to the country home his grandparents occupied before Grandpa took the job at the hospital. They quit school to catch lobsters and fish with nets. Alex and his twin sister remain with the grandparents, still too young to fully grasp what has happened. Occasionally, they visit the brothers, and Alex marvels at the different lives the teenage boys lead. The boys work the land and play cards in the evenings, occasionally with visiting relatives. They speak Gaelic often.

Alex and his sister are “lucky, unlucky” (60) children. Although their parents have died, their grandparents dote upon them. Now, the grandparents have money to give their grandchildren advantages that they could not give their own children. One day, Alex fight with a cousin, also named Alexander MacDonald, over their respective relationships with their grandparents. The fight is settled quickly, and Alex feels a twinge of envy at not having parents of his own.

Chapters 7-9 Analysis

The relationship Alex shares with his grandparents is an important part of the book. At only 3 when his parents died, Alex was not old enough to fully comprehend what happened. Incidents such as the fight with his cousin, Alexander MacDonald, force him to confront just how strange and tragic his childhood was. That they fight over their bond with their grandparents suggests that Alex’s understanding of family is warped by his situation, but he only begins to comprehend it in later life. The narrative’s perspective—looking back over the course of many years—forces introspection and allows Alex to detail to the reader the ways in which the various tragedies of his life have shaped his current character.

This is helped by the framing device—the visit to Calum—which recurs at the beginning of many chapters. The journey to purchase alcohol—a simple, menial task—has been stretched over several chapters, and in doing so, the author imbues the task with added importance and narrative weight. The journey is slow and ponderous, each tiny detail forcing Alex to think and reconsider his life. Because the narrative lavishes this minor chore with such attention, it forces the reader to think about its importance: Why is Alex buying Calum alcohol important? Should Alex be doing this? What about the chore forces him to reconsider the minutiae of his life? The framing device and the structure of the narrative adds weight to the menial present while closely examining the vibrant past.