Ngm Novel Notes
No Great Mischief Understood
Chapter 1:
-grandma is freaking out about the wasted tomatoes as she is used to using everything
- every Saturday Alexander MacDonald visits his alcoholic brother Calum
-modern day is a September day in Toronto
-Calum lives in a crack of a location with a little bit of yellowish light; the bathroom is shared by everyone on the floor; the lock on the bathroom does not work and the hot water is scare
-brother gets a gash above his eye and it drips into his chest hair and vanishes
-when he opened the door he was very shaky, since he is an alcoholic and has not drunken today
-Calum barely eats
-“almost as if the alcohol were a mysterious kind of plant food, causing the top most leaves to flourish while the plant itself grows numb” -9
-it took Calum 3 times to drink the alcohol his brother brought 1. Shot glass dropped 2. mug no handles dropped 3. Kid like bowl swallowed
-Calum remembers his old loyal horse Christy and her loyalty that she showed the brothers
-Calum Ruadh was their great great great grandfather, who looks like Alexander with red hair, but Calum has his name and his size
-He is buried on the edge of a cliff and his tomb stone gets destroyed by the storms and they have to keep re-writing his name
-the words on the tomb stone were seen better in the storm than in fair weather (relationship to Calum’s alcoholism)
-Hardly remember parents, unsure if it is memories or stories
-Alexander’s twin sister is Catriona
-only reason Alexander comes is to look after his own blood (major theme)
-Alexander remembers his roots in Cape Breton through the song “Lament for Cape Breton” and sings the song
-Alexander goes out and buys alcohol for his brother
-Alexander is middle aged and considers himself a twenties century man
Chapter 2:
-flashes back to Cape Breton when he was first attending school
-Alexander is called “gille beag ruadh” (red haired boy) and knows this better than his birth name
Chapter 1:
-grandma is freaking out about the wasted tomatoes as she is used to using everything
- every Saturday Alexander MacDonald visits his alcoholic brother Calum
-modern day is a September day in Toronto
-Calum lives in a crack of a location with a little bit of yellowish light; the bathroom is shared by everyone on the floor; the lock on the bathroom does not work and the hot water is scare
-brother gets a gash above his eye and it drips into his chest hair and vanishes
-when he opened the door he was very shaky, since he is an alcoholic and has not drunken today
-Calum barely eats
-“almost as if the alcohol were a mysterious kind of plant food, causing the top most leaves to flourish while the plant itself grows numb” -9
-it took Calum 3 times to drink the alcohol his brother brought 1. Shot glass dropped 2. mug no handles dropped 3. Kid like bowl swallowed
-Calum remembers his old loyal horse Christy and her loyalty that she showed the brothers
-Calum Ruadh was their great great great grandfather, who looks like Alexander with red hair, but Calum has his name and his size
-He is buried on the edge of a cliff and his tomb stone gets destroyed by the storms and they have to keep re-writing his name
-the words on the tomb stone were seen better in the storm than in fair weather (relationship to Calum’s alcoholism)
-Hardly remember parents, unsure if it is memories or stories
-Alexander’s twin sister is Catriona
-only reason Alexander comes is to look after his own blood (major theme)
-Alexander remembers his roots in Cape Breton through the song “Lament for Cape Breton” and sings the song
-Alexander goes out and buys alcohol for his brother
-Alexander is middle aged and considers himself a twenties century man
Chapter 2:
-flashes back to Cape Breton when he was first attending school
-Alexander is called “gille beag ruadh” (red haired boy) and knows this better than his birth name