Truly Madly Guilty

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-11

Chapters 12-24

Chapters 25-44

Chapters 45-61

Chapters 62-75

Chapters 76-89

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 45-61Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 45-61 Summary

The events of the barbecue come to a culmination. Ruby has fallen into Vid’s big, fancy fountain and isn’t breathing. An ambulance is called. Erika and Oliver perform CPR for 5 minutes, but Ruby still isn’t breathing. Erika, desperate and frustrated, internally demands that Ruby breathe. Finally, Ruby vomits up water and begins to breathe again. The hospital sends a helicopter for Ruby. Tiffany, caught up in the moment and her own guilt, doesn’t pay attention to Dakota’s reaction. She drives Clementine to the hospital when Sam goes in the helicopter, but they get stuck in a traffic jam. To keep Clementine calm, Tiffany tells her all about her job as an exotic dancer.

Holly stays with Oliver and Erika. Erika passes out from the interaction of alcohol with her medication. Holly confides in Oliver and shares a secret. At the hospital, Ruby’s grandparents arrive, and Pam, Clementine’s mother, scolds Clementine for letting this happen. Clementine is overwhelmed by shame.

In the present, Sam and Clementine argue and blame each other for what happened. They talk about separating. Tiffany realizes that her family needs to see that Ruby is okay to get move forward from the traumatic event. Erika is trying to remember what she forgot about that night and goes into to Vid’s backyard to try and remember. She sees that he’s gotten rid of the fountain, and her memory fails to come back.

Chapters 45-61 Analysis

This section is the climax of this novel and ties together the narrative threads. Readers learn about Ruby’s near drowning. The details of this event reveal character motivations and actions. Clementine’s guilt is the reason that she shares her story at community centers, and she feels even more obligated to donate her eggs to Erika because Erika saved her daughter.

It also becomes apparent why Dakota blames herself. When Dakota confessed her guilt to her parents, they “hadn’t listened properly to a word she said” and so never corrected her of this belief. The moment where Tiffany doesn’t notice Dakota’s distress mirrors Ruby’s accident. Both were fleeting moments where a child went unnoticed, but both cases had serious consequences. Because Dakota’s distraught confession went unaddressed, she became increasingly withdrawn and numb, internalizing her “groundless remorse” until she was a figment of herself. Ruby’s hospitalization and Dakota’s emptiness resulted from inattentiveness and exemplify the theme of Parenthood: Responsibility and Guilt.

Moriarty juxtaposes Sam and Clementine’s discussion about separating with Ruby’s accident, bringing together the darkest part of the present-day story with the darkest part of the barbecue story. This suggests that parenthood can be one of the biggest trials of marriage. Moriarty juxtaposes these scenes because they are causally related; the first scene causes the second scene. Moriarty uses this cause-and-effect pattern frequently in the following section as well.