ATDTDA (8): Kitless, 215-217

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Great stuff. Like the little temporal wobble we're all going through, 
some parts of the story catching up with the others, very time 
travel and very woozy. Paul's close reading of the Traverse family
dynamic is fine Arabian Stuff. And Kit's absence at this moment is
well worth noting.
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Paul Nightingale <isreading at btinternet.com>
> The first thing we notice is the absence of Kit from
> his father's burial. The Union is absent also (216),
> so Webb is once again the family man, although Kit's
> absence reminds us of their parting: "You're either my
> boy or theirs." (105)
> 
> Reef insists that "Frank and me will get the ones that
> did it", even though he previously kept Frank at a
> distance, in his place. Mayva implies that her sons
> should do God's work, and Reef's statement is a
> response to that: the exchange of looks between Reef
> and Lake undermines the patriarchal order their mother
> has apparently confirmed. Only apparently, since she
> says "somebody down here will have the chance before
> he [God] gets around to it": any confirmation is in
> Reef's response.
> 
> He sees through Lake's dutiful-daughter act, but
> insists her job is to mourn Webb: "There's this 
> other business to be done. Idea is to keep you and Kit
> clear of it, and the less you know, the better."
> 
> Here he acts as head of the family; he might allow
> Frank a role, but the younger siblings are put in
> their place. Lake's appearance ("a shapely black 
> dress that must have set many a Blair Street lowlife's
> pulses to throbbing but was now dedicated to
> memorialising her father") is ambiguous; as are the
> final lines, "what was behind that passionate speech
> ..." etc (217). 
> 
> To Reef, she "just seemed to be drifting through it
> smoothly as if she was on wheels, wheels on track ..."
> (216): all of which invokes the railroad. It is the
> description of Lake here that--in this of all
> sections--connects to the work that, taken for granted
> ("crews nobody ever saw"), is therefore championed by
> trade unionism.
> 
> Veiled, her face is "just a marble mask". This refers
> most clearly to her refusal to show any emotion;
> Mayva, above, has also refused "to put on the kind of
> show you saw these Mexican widows going in for". But
> Lake's appearance--as perceived here by Reef--reminds
> us also of the way the landscape was described as Reef
> approached Jeshimon, "heads they could tilt and swivel
> to watch you ride past, faces so sensitive they
> reacted to each change of weather, each act of
> predation around them ..." (209). In the current
> passage, Lake "flashe[s] him her usual
> don't-believe-it-for-a-minute stare" (216).
>