54 pages • 1 hour read
The Shards: A Novel
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Chapters 17-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: The section contains depictions of suicidal ideation, antigay bias, sexual violence, sexual harassment, mental illness, animal cruelty, animal death, substance use, graphic violence, graphic sexual content, cursing, illness, death, and emotional abuse.
Chapter 17 Summary
The Jonathan Club is a private beach club near the Santa Monica Freeway. Bret and his friends, who aren’t “politically engaged,” go to the club despite its racist and sexist policies. They find it empty due to recent attacks by the Riders of the Afterlife. Bret looks at Thom and Robert in the locker room, but they turn away from him. On the beach, Thom reads Sports Illustrated, Debbie reads Interview, Bret reads Didion’s second essay collection The White Album (1979), and Susan stares at the sea. A boom box plays disquieting songs, like the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” (1971). Robert and Thom walk the shore together, and Bret compares them to “Greek gods.”
By himself, Bret takes a shower in the locker room. He hears someone in the bathroom stall and thinks the person is Robert. In the stall, someone has drawn a pentagram and left a dead seagull and a werewolf mask. Thom blames the Riders of the Afterlife.
Chapter 18 Summary
The next day, Bret drives Thom to Los Angeles International Airport, since Thom will spend a week in New York with his father. They listen to New Order and the Cure and discuss Thom’s plans to attend UCLA.
