Thursday, December 21, 2006

Chapter 18: A Family Funeral

Chapter 18 continues the revenge tale, as Reef brings the body back to Telluride. By the time he is back in Colorado, Reef is reading a Chums of Chance novel to the corpse, who starts speaking to Reef, saying “Something has happened to my eyes…” (215).


Later, at the funeral, it is clear that the boys intend to hunt down their father’s killer, an intention which has Lake labeling her brothers as damn fools. Reef returns to Nochecita long enough to attend to Stray, who gives birth to a son, Jesse. Jesse is Zoyd Wheeler’s grandfather in Vineland. It seems that Reef may intend to follow his father’s lead, and pretend to live a respectable life, even as he plays the role of Kieselguhr Kid.

Hamlet-like, the chapter closes with “Webb’s busy ghost, went bustling to and fro doing what he could to keep things hopping” (218).

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