Chapter 3, Crapper Summary and Analysis

Thomas opens the chapter with his friend Don Paterson and him thinking about Thomas Crapper, the inventor of the flush toilet, Thomas Crapper. Don and Thomas Lynch had just returned from a poetry festival, where Don had panned Thomas's poems. But they still had a good conversation together.

Thomas first went to Ireland twenty-seven years before. He was curious about his family and Yeats's poetry. He had saved up money for the flight when his friends went to Vietnam. He met up with some cousins there, Tommy and Nora Lynch, brother and sister. They had a good life together, running a farm. He had a good time during his visit with them.

Years later, he tries to reproduce the fun time he had there, while living in a large, old home in a small Michigan town, Galway, next to...