ATDTDA (17): Some deeper source of sorrow, 481-484

[Paul Nightingale]

Lake back to Tace, who is either there or not, a commentator of sorts, but
also complementary (eg the oneupwomanship of 480). In these pages Lake
alternates between Deuce, obsessing about Webb and now Sloat, and Tace. Lake
anticipates a reformed Deuce (482); whereas Tace has evidently sought refuge
from her husband ("Bible lessons" on 479; his "grumpy" mood on 481). Her
function is to ridicule Lake's certainty ("you're just the angel o' damn
mercy", 482), so perhaps that certainty wouldn't exist without the presence
of a dependable naysayer: in her diary, "I have to stay, it's part of the
deal (483). Eugene of course, previously, 'rescued' Tace from her own
family; she distances herself from him just as Lake's "daydreaming" will
subsequently transform the domesticated Tace (trapped in parenthood, she
cannot escape "Boilster babies" as she can their father, 482), recasting her
as "intimates who lay around in fancy linen sharing laudanum" (483) instead
of "readymades" (479).

Lake and Deuce are each pursuing responsibility, waiting for a causal
relationship to kick in, ie the consequences of Webb's murder--without
realising, it seems, that their godotesque wait is in fact the consequences.
As Deuce did previously, Lake in this section speculates about agency, what
she might do, change Deuce or kill him. On 483 she attempts to rewrite, or
offer the possibility of rewriting, history, all from a position of
ignorance: "Was Webb heeled that day ..." etc. This kind of authorship is
replicated further down the page, her words unquoted as she writes in her
diary a character 'elevated' to the role of narrator.

At the beginning of the chapter she was absent, as a character, the
narrative focusing on Deuce even when the subject was "they" (Lake finally
appearing at the bottom of the second page, isolated with "his sister Hope"
on 473 as she is now with the wife of her husband's boss). Here, she becomes
a self-conscious author (perhaps reflexive is more appropriate) as she
speculates about alternative narratives/fates: "She crossed out the words,
but went on daydreaming about it". And in the "dime novels full of lurid
goings-on" men's faces are "never too clear". When she dreamed of Mayva, her
brothers were represented by "fingers Mexican style" (480), Webb absent
altogether. If she thinks of it as "sneaking away to Silverton all over
again" (483) she has gone back to a time before Webb's death: again, cf. the
dream on 480-481.When Tace describes her abuse (480) Lake insists her own
family was different. There is of course no evidence or even suggestion of
abuse in the Traverse household; but there are different kinds of, or
degrees of, oppression.