Chapter 37 Summary

The novel returns to the plot line in this final chapter, in which we learn that Gemma Walsh, Reta's friend, has been appointed to a university Chair in Theology. Reta speaks about language as the material that gives events a coherent narrative, because life is really "full of isolated events." Gemma has told her that the Christian faith is balanced on the words "already" and "not yet;" "Christ has already come, but he has not yet come." Reta continues by explaining that if one could bring two opposing images together in the same way in which the traditional Christian faith brings the Trinity together - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit - then it could be understood that unsorted, yet unrelated words, can exert a powerful and metaphysical force. She uses the word "unless" as an example. She...