Breakfast on Pluto

Braden writes of the sleepy, peaceful little town of Tyreelin, and a stone cottage built by the strong hands of Braden’s Daddy. In the cottage one evening, Braden’s Mammy reads the boy a story about love and familial support. The happy family falls blissfully asleep, the horrors of the real world non-existent, and the boy thanks God for his life and especially his Mammy.

Braden regrets sharing with Louise a story about his mother and how beautiful she was according to his hometown neighbors. While sitting on her lap during their role-play, Braden feels overwhelmed and whispers his innermost secret words of love for his mother. The next day, Louise comes in dressed as a version of Braden’s mother and impersonates her coming back into his life. This causes a break in Braden; he cannot bear the travesty, becoming “rudderless.” Louise asks him to stay for breakfast, and he runs out of the house. Braden tells this story to Terence, who supports him, and in his presence, Braden feels “rock solid.” Terence again encourages Braden to write about his life.

Braden writes of a young theology student, Bernard McIvor, who is a star football player at his seminary. He likes the exertion of sports because it keeps lustful thoughts at bay and helps him remain pure. However, he submits to the shadowy lure of the phantom visitation that causes him to sin. This leads to his raping the young woman who serves him breakfast many years later. At this point, Braden becomes very angry because he does not know how to forgive his father for creating him, and Terence warns Braden that his rage will destroy him.

Braden writes of the pious Bergin family who are content in their religious bliss as their 16-year-old daughter Eily has a baby in the upstairs room. An obedient and smart girl who is a passionate lover of pop music and attends convent school, Eily cannot understand at first that Father Bernard is raping her. She lives with a sense of guilt as the baby grows inside of her. On a night in November, she carries the newborn in a box to Ma Braden’s house for fostering, then disappears from Tyreelin forever with the aid of Father Bernard. Her father goes mad after her disappearance, and her mother soon dies of a stroke.

After leaving Louise, Braden begins to live mostly as a woman and, while working as a prostitute, develops a clientele of men. The excitement of this life consumes Braden, and he barely registers Charlie’s depression over Irwin’s death. Discussing his life causes Terence to blush, and to provoke him, Braden jokes about also being a bomber.

Braden becomes involved with Dr. Vernon, who calls him Mandy. Dr. Vernon likes to role-play being the headmaster of Earls Court Academy with Mandy, his tardy pupil. He buys him expensive clothes and perfumes, and he decides to live with him. However, Braden soon gets bored, “a broody bitch!” (125), and leaves him.

After leaving Vernon, Braden (“Patrick-Puss”) dreams of settling with someone who is not boring and will love him. Braden reveals Terence believed Braden might have really been involved with the bombers.

Three Irish men, Big Joe Kiernan, Mayo Jack, and Faigs McKeever, prepare bombs on November 6, 1974, and then leave with them in a Mark 2 Ford Cortina.

Slightly drunk, Puss decides to go to a disco-pub. He knows there will be many soldiers present, and he hopes they will take him for a girl and fall in love with him. Just as Braden starts to dance with a soldier, a bomb detonates, killing the soldier and missing Braden by chance. In shock, he starts to laugh hysterically, and another bomb goes off, killing many more people in the disco-pub. The police who arrive believe Braden is the bomber, especially because he is Irish and dressed as a woman, which they take for a disguise, even though she tells them, “what I am is an ordinary transvestite prostitute, not the slightest bit interested in politics at all!” (134).

During questioning, Braden finds it difficult to focus and giggles at importune moments. He even jokes that he planted hundreds of bombs because he does not believe the police will take her seriously.

On a quiet weekday evening in London, Paddy Pussy, the “undisputed leader” of the IRA unit, decides which restaurant to bomb. As she tries on her gowns, she changes her mind about doing the job herself, but her fellow terrorists beg her to do it.

Terence asks Braden if he was having an out-of-body experience in jail because the way he talks about it is as if he never spent much time there. Braden recalls his lack of focus and laughter drove the investigators mad with frustration.

Braden’s irrational behavior after four days in jail drives Detective Inspector Peter Routledge to his own sense of lunacy, and he begins to suspect that perhaps the young man dressed as a woman is telling the truth about being a “drifting transvestite prostitute from the backwoods of Ireland” (139).

In jail, Braden imagines his mother returning to Tyreelin when he was young to save him. She is glamorous like Sophia Loren and understanding of Braden. Together they will traverse the universe.