Reading in the Dark

Religious Knowledge, September 1954

The narrator sits through a religion class in which his teacher, a priest, asks a series of questions with no discernible answers, such as “How many angels can balance on the head of a pin?” (186) The narrator is unable to answer these questions, and the priest emphasizes the importance of faith.  

All of It?, November 1954

In this section, the narrator pieces together all of the information he has learned about Eddie from various sources, trying to create a cohesive narrative. Some of the information seems certain, while other parts of it are questionable.

Deane confirms that Uncle Eddie did not disappear after a shoot-out at an old distillery. Instead, the narrator’s grandfather and Tony McIlhenny suspected that Eddie was a police informant and take him to the family’s old farmhouse in Derry for an interrogation. During the interrogation, the narrator’s aunts, Ena and Bernadette, are sent outside where they hear everything. The men decide that Eddie is guilty, and they take him to Grianan. There, the narrator’s grandfather orders Larry McLaughlin to shoot Eddie. Eddie’s murder takes place on the same night that Larry supposedly has sex with a she-devil.