65 pages 2 hours read

Alistair MacLeod

No Great Mischief

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999

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Chapters 31-33Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 31 Summary

Calum and Alex drive to Sudbury beneath the warm summer sun. Calum recalls the times he went out on the sea in a boat, trying to throw up enough froth in his wake to create a rainbow from the setting sun. His father had done the same, but Calum was never able to replicate the effect.

Next, Calum tells Alex of a time that he returned to the island with his brothers and an assortment of drilling equipment. On the drive back to the island, they recover a kitten that has been thrown to the side of the road and nurse it back to health. They arrive home, visit their grandparents, and then ride a boat to the island the next day. They use the drilling equipment to carve their parents’ names into the rock, as well as Colin’s, and then tour the old house, which has been abandoned. They drink water from the well and think about their dead parents before riding the boat home. 

Chapter 32 Summary

Calum and Alex take it in turns to drive. The memory of their parents hangs over them constantly, and Calum details his memories of them.