His uncle's execution is an act of terrorism, because it was done to make Eddie an example for what happens to informants. The IRA's mistakeīy saying that the IRA wrongly executed his uncle, the boy is parting ways with those who silently support them in their (often terroristic) ways. He represents the tenuous relationship between Irish citizens and the IRA.

Perhaps this is like writing a poem not from one's own point of view, but from the point of view of an abstract 'poet.' In other words, the boy's namelessness represents the fact that he represents a point of view that many share. This novel was written by an Irish poet, which helps explain why the boy isn't named. In other words, Eddie represents a real haunting for the boy who becomes obsessed with defending his legacy. His family stands against him, protecting their secrets from him, telling him to stop trying to figure things out.

Written by people who wish to remain anonymousĮddie's legacy haunts the boy who wants to know the truth and proclaim it. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. All of these liven up the novel, whose real story is fine but hardly gripping.These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. There is the wonderful episode of the priest giving our narrator his sex talk and the narrator’s comments thereon. There is the ghost story about the sisters who keep in touch with their dead parents.

No, it is the little stories he tells in between that make this book enjoyable. His uncle was an informer and then wasn’t and his uncle (by marriage) probably was and his mother had an affair before marrying his father. However, the plot is not really very interesting. The plot is the story of a boy growing up in Derry as a Catholic, with all the problems of prejudice that are involved but, also, gradually finding out, over the course of the book, the reason why his uncle Eddie died, why his uncle (by marriage) abruptly left his mother’s sister, Katie, and disappeared to America and his very nervous mother’s guilty secret in all of this. Though there is a plot to this novel, much of its charm lies in the vignettes of life as a Catholic in Derry after World War II.

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