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Maryanne
My view: much of the book is written from the perspective of the young children. Since their parents were not very good at the parenting thing, or the communicating thing, not only were they often left to their own (limited!) devices, very little of what was happening was ever actually explained to them. They had tremendous guilt about the gun being in Cal's possession and carried that burden with them through adulthood. Carolyn told them to keep quiet about what happened -- as a child herself, she didn't know what happened and feared she and they had caused Cal's death. They did not. Cal died from a bee sting. Although their childish naivete gives the author a tool with which to build suspense, this is not a cheap plot device -- being children, the characters really never fully understood what had happened to Cal. Thus they were ultimately -- and needlessly -- haunted their entire lives. They didn't realize that in the beginning, Albi wasn't a troublemaker -- he was just a little kid. And like all other kids needed parental supervision. Caroline wasn't a Nazi officer. She was a strong-willed young girl, doing the best she could in uncertain circumstances. Like Albi, she also needed a stronger, guiding hand. Was Teresa at fault? She was raising four kids with no help from their father. Was Beverly to blame? She was often raising six kids, also often on her own. (Although leaving Fix for Bert indicates she was drawn to his looks and swagger, definitely not something her character could be proud of) This story seems to be about the sweeping effects of neglect and abandonment, largely though not entirely, rooted in Bert's egotistical and self-centered ways.
Debbie Jo
Just had the pleasure of hearing Ann Patchett speak at Boswell Books in Milwaukee last night - with Jane Hamilton - can you believe it! A similar question was asked - about wondering if he had been shot. No intention to make readers think this - it was the bee sting.
Linda Goodman
I agree with Lissa, but there was a section of the book when I also thought Cal had been shot. Later in the story, it became more clear what happened to Cal that day.
Kelly Brown
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Rachel
Exactly what Karen said. Remember that there was an autopsy, so if he had been shot, it would have come up in the story. (Teresa talks about the autopsy near the end of the book.) It was definitely just a bee sting, but it's still very tragic because they watched him die because they thought he was joking.
Karen
If he had been shot, there would have been police, questioning of the children, a search for the gun...none of that happened. However, there was of detail about the gun, making it sort of a red herring...but maybe it was there to create suspense and emphasize the recklessness of both the children and the adults...the consequences of raising the ultimate "free range" children.
Kristin
Yes, the bee sting. I'm not really sure why the gun was introduced at all. Maybe just to give a sense of how reckless the kids were?
Claudia Blackburn
I thought at one point in the book, Albi said that Ned, or someone from the barn, shot Calvin. I listened to the audiobook and didn’t go back and check. Obviously this didn’t happen but did anyone else read this?
Nicki
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Donna
Seems it is one of those things you are supposed to wonder about?
Lara
The gun was never fired. I think Patchett was playing with our expectation that if there is a gun introduced in fiction someone will always get shot. It created a level of simmering tension and danger. I've noticed she likes to do that with details in her books. The fact that the gun was never actually used (and of course there is another important scene with a different gun later on that is also never used but is very scary), doesn't detract from the fact that the presence of the gun is scary. The children live lives that are just kind of scary and stressful. Maybe that's what childhood is? Especially in "broken" homes. Another detail I found very scary was the fact that Caroline secretly hit Franny when no one was around to see.
Lua
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