57 pages • 1-hour read
Saint X
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “Gogo”
Chapter 6 returns to Clive’s third-person perspective, just after Claire has yelled his nickname. This reminder of Clive’s past profoundly rattles him; it has the power to haunt him if he lets it.
Clive’s father died when Clive was four, and Clive was raised by his mother in Bendy Harbour until she got work off the island, at which point he moved in with his grandmother in Horatio Byrd. With his mother, he was often left at home unsupervised, while his grandmother imposed strict routines and fed him home-cooked meals. Clive liked these routines, such as saying psalms and making his bed.
Clive reminisces about the evenings he used to spend with his mother and other community members. They told stories at Sunday-night gatherings, and Clive’s favorite story was about a long-haired woman with hooves for feet who lived on Faraway Cay.
After moving in with his grandmother Clive started second grade at Horatio Byrd primary. He was shy and stuttered. On his first day, he struggled to ask to use the bathroom, stuttering on the word “go,” and Edwin gave him the nickname “Gogo.” After this, Edwin brought Clive into his friend group.
The resorts had not yet come to Saint X, so Clive and his friends spent time on the undeveloped south shores. Unlike his friends, Clive never dreamed of moving to New York or London, wanting to stay on the island. Years later, Clive dwells on how meeting Edwin changed the trajectory of his life, landing him in New York.
The section at the end of the chapter comes from Richard Conti, Alison’s high school English teacher, who appears in an Esquire interview in Chapter 5. Here, Conti paints a picture of Alison as talented, extremely intelligent, and strong-willed. He recalls a particular incident in which he ran into her at a diner. She invited him to sit down with her and asked him if it bothered him to spend his time with kids her age, then brushed her foot against his leg under the table. After this encounter, Conti says that he started to become resentful of his job and the students.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Evidence”
Chapter 7 returns to Claire’s first-person perspective. She wonders whether she is punishing Clive by following him but decides she is searching for the truth. Through the fall, Claire continues her nightly routine. She calls her parents regularly, just as she always has, and they easily believe the lies she tells them about how she is spending her time.
This chapter includes more sources, such as a Dateline interview with Harold Moses, the security guard at Indigo Bay. A book by Craig Sheppard titled Tragedy in Paradise: The Untold Story of the Alison Thomas Murder is excerpted to show Sheppard’s theory behind Alison’s death, followed by Reddit posts on the subject. All these sources offer theories about the case. One Reddit post surmises that the police could have fabricated Edwin and Clive’s alibi.
Using work time to research at the New York Public Library, Claire comes across a book that mentions the folktale of the woman on Faraway Cay. This book explains that in the tale, the woman is trapped for eternity on the island. She has “white skin and long black hair and hooves for feet” (143). She lures people to the waterfall and then disappears. When the person tries to pursue her, they drown. For each person who dies, another goat appears on the island, with “humanness in their eyes” (144).
Claire calls her mother one evening to ask if she can have Alison’s old cassette tapes, onto which Alison had recorded entries of an audio diary. Her mother agrees to make copies and mail them to Claire.
Claire’s experience trailing Clive transforms over time. She’s increasingly preoccupied by thoughts of him, and it becomes unbearable to go a night without following him. This becomes clear when Claire goes to a Halloween party with friends, whom she never sees anymore because of how consumed she’s become with Clive. She has a good time for a while, but eventually leaves unannounced, overwhelmed by panic at skipping her nightly routine.
The entry at the end of Chapter 7 comes from the unnamed girlfriend of “the actor.” Her memoir was mentioned in Claire’s research, and here, she defends herself against the criticism she received after its publication. For a long time after finding Alison’s body, the girlfriend experienced anxiety and intrusive thoughts, often seeing the image of Alison’s arm in the water. After many failed treatments, she discovered a solution herself: She would accept the image instead of pushing away, greeting Alison each time. She writers: “I have found that this way, I can turn her from a body into a girl” (148).
Chapters 6-7 Analysis
Chapters 6 and 7 expand on the motif of the woman on Faraway Cay, a folktale from Saint X. Claire and Clive each engage with this motif, but in very different ways that reveal their cultural differences. For Clive, this story has captivated him since childhood, and he refers to it as his “favorite” among the many stories the adults tell. He is told as a child that an aunt of his was taken by the woman on Faraway Cay, and so this folktale carries an ominous magic. Claire comes across the story through researching the history of Saint X, and she processes the folktale with a sober practicality. Instead of finding it eerie that her sister’s body was found in such a fabled place, she concludes that the murderer must have placed Alison’s body in the waterfall deliberately, as a kind of inside joke for those who know the folktale. While Clive’s upbringing on Saint X fostered a belief in things beyond understanding, Claire reaches for the most concrete explanation available.
It is ironic, then, that Claire spends so much time in this chapter engaging with far-fetched theories explaining Alison’s death, such as those found in Craig Sheppard’s book, or the many subreddit posts she reads. While she spends some time with these theories, she’s not sure what to do with them all, and eventually dismisses them. The tale of the woman from Faraway Cay, however, sticks with her; as she continues to follow Clive each night, and her grip on reality slips, she hears hooves, and an image surfaces of Alison’s arm beckoning her from below the water. These sensory details point to more mysterious, folkloric explanations for what happened to Alison.
Chapter 6 and 7 further develop the theme of Fractured Identity. In Chapter 6, the confessional passage reveals details about Alison that her high school English teacher has kept secret. In Chapter 7, Claire discovers an interview of a security guard at Indigo Bay named Moses, who saw Alison the evening of her death. The confessional on its own underscores a painful reality: that no matter how much research Claire does, she will only ever see what people want to reveal. Mr. Conti states that he didn’t share the full truth about Alison with the Esquire reporter, keeping secret an alarming encounter he had with Alison. On the other hand, Moses shares that he observed Alison dipping her toes into the pool before heading to the bar: “She appeared quite peaceful, like she was having some special time to she self” (135). He says he believes that her death was a crime of passion, and by way of explanation, he says that Alison was “pretty pretty.” Moses’s impression of Alison as beautiful, sweet, and innocent girl contrasts with Mr. Conti’s assertion that Alison flirtatious beyond her years.
Unlock all 57 pages of this Study Guide
Get in-depth, chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis from our literary experts.
- Grasp challenging concepts with clear, comprehensive explanations
- Revisit key plot points and ideas without rereading the book
- Share impressive insights in classes and book clubs